Moral Debate Quotes

Pornography is a malady to be diagnosed and an occasion for judgment. It's something one is for or against. And taking sides about pornography is hardly like being against aleatoric music or Pop Art, but quite a bit like being for or against legalized abortion or federal aid to parochial schools.

Embryonic stem cell research is legal in America, and nothing in the administration's current policy affects that legality; 400 lines are currently being used to conduct embryonic stem cell research, both in the private sector and by the Federal Government.

Planned Parenthood has amassed a Third Reich-style death count completely legally and while pocketing half a billion dollars a year to do so.

If he is convicted, Dr. Kevorkian says he will die a martyr's death by going on a hunger strike.

I favor capital punishment. It saves lives.

I believe that properly regulated research in stem-cell biotechnology will lead to many valuable improvements in medical treatment and that objections on religious or ethical grounds should be vigorously opposed.

Barack Obama and I have an honest disagreement on the issue of abortion.

I'm sick of hearing, thinking and talking about Woody Allen. Nonetheless, the allegations against him continue to capture our national attention because so much of the story is strange and sordid.

The two hot issues are the gay issue and the abortion issue. These are the two defining issues in the evangelical community these days. I'm sure that these hot buttons will be pushed, time and time again.

Under current federal policy on human embryonic stem cell research, only those stem cell lines derived before August 9, 2001 are eligible for federally funded research.

Legislation against this type of cloning [therapeutic] is Canute against the ocean …. medieval views must not hold back the future…. We need government as a partner, not as an enemy.

It seems like every few years a big name author will holler something about how evil, heinous, and morally wrong fan fiction and fan fiction writers are, and then the Internet gets all upset and shocked, and then the author is shocked that people could get so upset.

[I]t seems to me as clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime.

In argument about moral problems, relativism is the first refuge of the scoundrel.

Typically, discussions of the safety net boil down to one side wanting to spend more in the name of compassion, and the other side wanting to spend less in the name of fiscal restraint. In both cases, money serves as a proxy for moral responsibility.

The death penalty has always been fraught with racial bias…. I cannot understand how people can find pleasure in, or believe that civilized values are served by, the killing of another human being.

Our increasing ability to alter our biology and open up the processes of life is now fueling a new cultural war.

I only gave out my opinion that same sex marriage is against the law of God.

What really worries me is that those who are in positions of power are not really affected by what we are writing. In the moral dialogue you want to start, you really want to involve the leaders. People ask me: "Why were you so bold as to publish A Man of the People? How did you think the Government was going to take it? You didn't know there was going to be a coup?" I said rather flippantly that nobody was going to read it anyway, so I wasn't likely to be fired from my official position. It's a distressing thought that we cannot engage our leaders in the kind of moral debate we need.

I certainly don't think that taxpayers should subsidize abortions.

Some parts of the Bible are dreadful. In fact, my working title for The Sins of Scripture was "The Terrible Text of The Bible."

In the continuing debate over the morality of enhanced interrogation, an essential consideration is often overlooked: intent.

I'm a Republican, but not on this issue [abortion]. It's destroying the party.

If war were declared tonight and I went on a talk show, the first question would be about abortion.