Seeking the welfare of the city of our exile

First Things is an ecumenical, nonpartisan publication of intelligent, faithful, orthodox opinion, featuring the writings of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Who belongs to the we? If a principle is established by which some indisputably human lives do not warrant the protections traditionally associated with the dignity of the human person- because of their size, location, dependency, level of development, or burdensomeness to others- it would seem that there are numerous candidates for the application of the principle, beginning with the radically handicapped, both physically and mentally, not to mention millions of aged and severely debilitated in our nation's nursing homes.