Editing Consistent life ethic (section)

===Cardinal Joseph Bernardin===
Cardinal [[Joseph Bernardin]] of [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago|Chicago]] helped publicize the consistent life ethic idea, initially in a lecture at Fordham University, December 6, 1983.  At first Bernardin spoke out against nuclear war and abortion. However, he quickly expanded the scope of his view to include all aspects of human life. In that Fordham University lecture, Bernardin said: "The spectrum of life cuts across the issues of genetics, abortion, capital punishment, modern warfare and the care of the terminally ill."<ref name="ReferenceA">Overberg, Kenneth R. S.J.:"A Consistent Ethic of Life", Catholic Update, St. Anthony's Press, 2009</ref>  Bernardin said that although each of the issues was distinct, nevertheless the issues were linked since the valuing and defending of (human) life were, he believed, at the center of both issues. Bernardin told an audience in Portland, Oregon: "When human life is considered 'cheap' or easily expendable in one area, eventually nothing is held as sacred and all lives are in jeopardy."<ref name="ReferenceA" />

Bernardin drew his stance from New Testament principles, specifically of forgiveness and reconciliation, yet he argued that neither the themes nor the content generated from those themes were exclusively Christian.<ref name="Walter, James J 2005">Walter, James J. and Shannon, Thomas A.: ''Contemporary Issues in Bioethics: A Catholic perspective'', Rowan and Littlefeild Publishers, 2005.</ref> By doing this, Bernardin attempted to create a dialogue with others who were not necessarily aligned with Christianity.

Bernardin and other advocates of this ethic sought to form a consistent policy that would link abortion, capital punishment, economic injustice, euthanasia, and unjust war.<ref name="Bernardin, Joseph 1988" /> Bernardin sought to unify conservative Catholics (who opposed abortion) and liberal Catholics (who opposed capital punishment) in the United States. By relying on fundamental principles, Bernardin also sought to coordinate work on several different spheres of Catholic [[moral theology]]. In addition, Bernardin argued that since the 1950s the church had moved against its own historical, [[casuistry|casuistic]] exceptions to the protection of life. "To summarize the shift succinctly, the presumption against taking human life has been strengthened and the exceptions made ever more restrictive."<ref name="Bernardin, Joseph 1988" />