Never Do Evil So Good May Come of It: Why Legislators Must Stop Justifying Surrogacy
by Rickard Newman, Witherspoon Institute:
The law is a teacher. By legalizing surrogacy, Louisiana legislators are teaching people that it is morally permissible to use people as means to an end.
As my wife and I lobbied in the Louisiana legislature this spring, trying to stop a bill legitimizing surrogacy, an image from the Screwtape Letters came to mind. In it, C.S. Lewis describes his vision of Hell:
I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of “Admin.” The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its final result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.
Thus far, our protesting has been to no avail. On May 4, the Louisiana House of Representatives passed the bill, and two weeks later the Senate followed suit. The only thing that can stop the bill now is a veto from Governor John Bel Edwards.
The name of the bill is HB 1102, and I’m sure Screwtape would be proud of it. Just look at the amendment that was added after the House floor debate. It contains several pages full of bone-chillingly cold, anti-human language such as “On page 5, line 18, delete ‘mother’ and insert ‘carrier,’ and delete ‘husband’ and insert ‘spouse.’” How right C.S. Lewis was. In our days, humanity is not erased in concentration camps but in PDF documents.