| Ethic Cleansing Peter Singer The Bulletin , December 15, 2004, pp. 39-42 As we reach the end of 2004, Australia and the United States have re-elected their governments and seem to be going down similar paths. In the US, according to exit polls, 22% of the electorate said “moral values” were the most important factor in their choice of candidate – ranking higher than either the war in Iraq or the economy. Of this 22%, almost four out of five voted for George W. Bush, and if the polls are accurate, those voters played a decisive role in his re-election. Morality has always featured prominently in Bush’s speeches. Now his moral choices will be under more scrutiny than ever. Moral values do not appear to have played so large a role in the Australian election, which focused more on economic management and national security. Since the election, however, some prominent Australians have tried to import America’s “culture wars”. Health Minister Tony Abbott lamented the “unambiguous moral tragedy” of abortion, and called for a re-examination of Medicare payments for that procedure. He has also drawn attention to the issue of teenage promiscuity as a moral problem, seeking to raise the age at which parents can have access to their teenagers’ medical records. Meanwhile Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, has attacked “secular democracy” because it allows pornography, abortion, high levels of marriage breakdown, in vitro fertilisation and stem cell research. In its place, Pell would like to see “democracy founded on the transcendent dignity of the human person” – a dignity that he believes comes into existence at conception. Never mind if that’s a minority view in Australia – there is, Pell assures us, “nothing undemocratic” about bringing into Australian politics the “truth” of this transcendent dignity, and of “our dependence on God”. | |
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