Respect for the
sanctity of human life
Conclusion

Among the concerns that have to do with upholding the dignity of human life, no scene is more agonizing than the wretched condition of millions of children around the world. When the Bible says that human beings are made in the image of God, it means that children are of infinite worth. And Christ affirms this by his word: "Let the children come to me for of such is the kingdom of God."

But the word of Jesus, I'm sure, does not mean the indiscriminate births of children to the point that millions of them are with extended stomachs, who are literally skin and bones, and whose eyes stare at you from severe malnutrition.

The intention of biblical faith does not require that human beings will multiply, although not to the maximum population but to the optimum, which means, as Arnold Toynbee has put it, that number that under technological and social conditions of a particular time and place, will give each child the capability to live with a standard not only in economic but especially in spiritual terms.

To apply the words of Tynbee to our Philippine situation, we have no business "breeding like rabbits." As you and I know, we are one of the fastest growing in population in the world, according to statistics of the World Health Organization.

One of the main reasons for our population explosion is a theological concept that grows out of the word of God in genesis, "Go forth and multiply," and use it as a text for the sanctity of human life when we already see human life dehumanized in some countries in the world.

Critics of a theology that permits unlimited population explosion say that those who cling to the old regulations take on the responsibility of feeding the starving millions around the world. For the word of Jesus must guide us : "I came that they may have life and have life in its fullness." (John 10:10).

Whether it be our upholding of the sanctity of womanhood, our loving concern for those who have less in life, or our sense of responsibility to ensure that we should have only the population that we can humanly feed, clothe, educate, and nurture spiritually, the towering truth for us is God's loving intention for all of human life that it be truly human.*

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