Respect for Life: Research Notes on Cardinal Bernardin's "Seamless Garment"

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin has argued that a moral principle, which he calls "respect for life," must be constructed to apply to a range of threats to life: the arms race, abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia and suicide for the terminally ill. This paper is a sociological examination of some empirical questions suggested by Bernardin's preaching. How do attitudes about various threats to life correlate with one another? Has the American public shown any movement toward a more consistent ethic of life? Will religion play a key role in forming such an ethic? Data from the 1977/78 and 1982/83 General Social Surveys reveal that there are two distinct dimensions underlying responses on the life issues, one having to do with personal liberties and the other with defense of society. Furthermore these dimensions seem to involve a competition for value formation between the church and the state.