“She’ll Be Able to Have You Put to Sleep”: How Disregard for God’s Image in One Context Diminishes Regard for God’s Image in Other Contexts
The erosion of a high regard for life in the womb inevitably erodes a high regard for lives in other locations as well
One of the more surprising sections in Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men recognizes that a devaluation of the lives of the unborn will devalue the lives of others as well.
Here’s how Sheriff Bell tells the story:
She kept on, kept on. Finally told me, said: I dont like the way this country is headed. I want my granddaughter to be able to have an abortion.
And I said well mam I dont think you got any worries about the way the country is headed. The way I see it goin I dont have much doubt but what she’ll be able to have an abortion. I’m goin to say that not only will she be able to have an abortion, she’ll be able to have you put to sleep. Which pretty much ended the conversation.
“Not only will she be able to have an abortion, she’ll be able to have you put to sleep.”
This is not a non sequitur in which the sheriff treats two unequivalent things as equivalents. He doesn’t state that the two issues are identical. But what Sheriff Bell recognizes is that the erosion of a high regard for life in the womb inevitably erodes a high regard for the lives of the old. That’s because the arguments typically offered to defend abortion focus on how the child’s life will diminish the mother’s—or others’—quality of life. In some instances, the arguments also center on an assumption that the child’s quality of life might be less than ideal.
Either way, the value of life is no longer intrinsic and absolute—based on the sacredness and value of human life itself—but extrinsic and relative, grounded in an amorphous notion of “quality” with no clear standard for how much “quality” is necessary to make a life worth preserving. When such reasoning becomes acceptable, the burden of caring for an aging body or a physically- or mentally-challenged individual can easily slip below this vague threshold as well.
For those who follow the way of Jesus Christ, the value of a human life has never depended on the perceived quality of that life according to our human calculus.
A Christian’s commitment to human life is grounded in the reality that every human being is crafted in the image of God. That foundational truth gives all people—born and unborn—“inherent dignity and value. It means that dignity is not about what we do, but about who we are as image-bearers. This truth should shape not only the way the church engages with dignity issues in culture but also how we treat those we come in contact with along the way.”
Excellently said!