People are Persons, not Products
Fr. Frank Pavone, wrote about people being persons and not products and to view children as gifts. Cultured, courteous people never ask for gifts nor destroy gifts that are given. Unfortunately, this is exactly what many people do to the gift of children - some of us destroy the gift while in the womb, or just after birth (if the gift looks “damaged” as in disabled) or we demand for children via IVF and similar procedures. Some of us even pray for no more. Fr. Pavone was commenting on the document Donum Vitae.
After I read this, I recalled last year when I was requested to attend an interview with a pharmaceutical company that specialises in supplying drugs that aid people who intend to conceive via IVF. I did some research on this company before accepting to attend the interview. My search on the products of the company indicated clearly that the company’s products were used by doctors to induce multiple ova to be ejected by ovaries and these are extracted and fertilised in vivo and some embryos are implanted into the womb and the rest frozen or discarded. Ultimately the frozen ones will also be discarded. I viewed this as killing unwanted people and decided not to attend the interview. Several months after this episode, this company was acquired by another. I would most certainly have been terminated as a recent hire, which is the usual practice in mergers and acquisitions. I was then reminded how God works in strange ways.
Fast forward to January 2007. I attended a job interview with a huge pharmaceutical company to play a key role in the marketing of their products. Unfortunately some of their products include oral contraceptives. I’ve already attended a couple of interviews and am awaiting their decision of an offer for the job. However, now my mind is in a quandary. Do I accept if offered this job and play a role in promoting the culture of death via the oral contraceptives? Can I justify this although these products play a minor role in the company’s portfolio? Can I rationalise by convincing myself that their other products are life giving, example vaccines?
When I turned down the interview with the former company, I was satisfied with my current job. When I attended the interviews with the second company I was already disgruntled with my job and looking desperately to move somewhere else. It’s in human nature to rationalise a bad deed or situation when times are desperate. And so I’m undecided and I’m wishing for the easy way out, by asking God to not give me the job if it’s bad. How convenient.
