Dr. Christopher Wolfe, emeritus professor of political science at Marquette University, co-director of the Ralph McInerny Center for Thomistic Studies and vice president of the Thomas International Project, will give a talk, “Can (and Should) We Legislate Morality?” on Wednesday, April 14.
Fairly often someone out there opines that we should not be in the business of legislating morality whenever something infringes on their convenient idea of freedom. It is often geared toward gambling, sexuality, or one of the life issues (abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, cloning, etc.). The fact of the matter, though, is that ALL legislation is legislating morality. From city ordinances to speed limits to who can marry who to murder, it’s all based on moral decisions of “what is best for the people.”
So, if the question is “can we,” the answer is “we already do.” If the question is “should we,” then the real question is whether we should have laws at all.
The libertarian approach is that we do need laws, that most of them should be local laws, and that we should have as few as possible. The idea that, when left to their own, the entire society does well on its own and devises efficient solutions to problems without the need of government intervention.
All legislation is based on some moral question, and I challenge anyone to find one that isn’t. Those that aren’t, we truly do not need.
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