More Thoughts on Mammograms

"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. (ESV)" Genesis 9:6

The above quotation from Genesis is not used to incite or even reference murder. This verse is important in the literary context of Genesis, because God created humanity in His own image in Genesis chapter 1. But in chapter 3, humanity fell by sinning for the first time. Yet in chapter 9 we see that the image of God is still retained in humanity even after the fall. In fact, it's a reason not to murder. The point? Each and every human life has value. This is a fundamental doctrine in the Christian worldview. It is not a fundamental doctrine of utilitarianism. And these doctrines are at opposite ends of the mammogram debate.

Time Magazine has an article analyzing the debate in more detail this week. Note the worldviews at work in the article. Essentially, here's the essence of the Christian worldview:

By and large, American patients (not to mention politicians and cancer advocacy groups) still subscribe to the view that every life is worth saving, no matter the cost, and that when it comes to prevention, screening is always good and more is always better.

And now the utilitarian worldview:

But such personal calculations do not apply in the same way to an entire population, where the benefit to some must be weighed against the harm to others.

Besides the fact that this article (and every other article I've read on the matter) doesn't really discuss individual harms besides the bogus factor of "stress", this article is relying on the fact that somebody has to worry on a societal level what care people receive. Why is such population calculation necessary? Well, it would be necessary if the government were heavily invested in the costs of healthcare. And our government is heavily invested in healthcare, and it is trying to be more than it already is. Please advise that the government's increased role in healthcare is thus a looming spector of problems.

The utilitarian argument is essentially that society must do what is greatest for the most amount of people. If we decide that society can spend less money and not that many people are affected by having less mammogram screening, then society benefits by having more resources (read: money). The most amount of people are served by the greatest good. But if society (read: government) is making these decisions instead of individuals, then individuals are screwed. Each and every human life does not matter in that scenario.

The Christian worldview is morally good. Utilitarianism is morally evil. There is not enough time or space on a blog to show you how utilitarian the U.S. government is becoming. Thankfully, cancer groups and women's groups (that are traditionally liberal) are fighting off these government recommendations regarding mammograms. And whether they know it or not, or whether they acknowledge it or not, they are influenced by the Christian worldview.

Now if only we could apply this logic from the women's groups to the debate on abortion.