When the “culture of life” theme started to become the mantra of social conservatives, few of us could imagine how President Bush and some of the Congressional leaders would expand the concept from anti-abortion and anti-embryonic stem cell research to include the Red Lake High School massacre, the Darfur genocide, and end-of-life decisions. The potential parameters of the “culture of life” agenda were defined by Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan), who said in a recent interview that the culture of life ‘’…includes somebody in Darfur or in the womb or disabled or somebody trying to get ahead in the inner city. We should look at this as a very holistic message." This application of the culture of life philosophy may transform social conservatives into social progressives.

The term culture of life was borrowed by President Bush from John Paul II’s encyclical Evangelum Vitae in 1995, which called culture of life a moral imperative for Roman Catholics. President Bush referred to the Pope’s use of the term in his March 22, 2001 remarks at the dedication of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center at Catholic University in Washington, DC:

 “The Pope reminds us that while freedom defines our nation, responsibility must define our lives. He challenges us to live up to our aspirations, to be a fair and just society where all are welcomed, all are valued, and all are protected. And he is never more eloquent than when he speaks for a culture of life. The culture of life is a welcoming culture, never excluding, never dividing, never despairing and always affirming the goodness of life in all its seasons.”

This Administration’s moral foundation for their culture of life policy was most recently defined in President Bush’s March 17,. 2005 statement on Terri Schiavo:

           “Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. It should be our goal
           as a nation to build a culture of life, where all Americans are valued, welcomed, and protected—
           and that culture of life must extend to individuals with disabilities.”

Adequate congressional funding of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program would appear to be encompassed in the Republican culture of life initiative. People with advanced HIV disease who cannot afford life-saving AIDS drugs live at the mercy of others—especially at the mercy of members of Congress. Those who are on ADAP waiting lists are disabled by their illness and by lack of access to their life-saving drugs. The AIDS Drug Assistance program is the societal equivalent of a feeding tube for people with advanced HIV disease. Those who are taken off antiretroviral treatment when they transfer to a state ADAP waiting list have, in this sense, had a societal feeding tube removed. The longer they are denied life-saving drugs, the more damage the removal of their antiretroviral drug therapy will cause, and long-term lack of therapy may cause death. To paraphrase President Bush, these people should be “valued, welcomed, and protected.”

Within the parameters of the culture of life that our present Administration endorses, if someone needs a feeding tube to maintain life, then a feeding tube is provided because the value and dignity of their life is respected. In the same way, when someone needs AIDS drugs to maintain life, they also “deserve our special care and concern.”  Otherwise, our and our government’s commitment to the culture of life is only rhetoric, and not a guiding moral principle.