Human Capital

When referring to the administration's contraception policy, "David Ignatius, a former Assistant Managing Editor for business news at the Washington Post and Executive Editor of the International Herald Tribune" made the following statement,

The White House argues that this is a net cost reducer, avoiding pregnancy, women choosing to do that, it’s less costly to insurance companies and to society than all of the services associated with pregnancy.

This observation by a senior news editor, whether it is accurate or not, reflects a cultural trend that reduces people to economic units.  This is not something new.  It has been gaining traction for decades and may be observed throughout our culture and even in our churches.  Institutions have departments of "human resources" and my own church body long referred to members as "giving units".  

I have, in my own small way, discouraged the use of the term, but there has been a long-term cultural trend to de-personalize human beings. The results of that trend may be observed in nearly all of our institutions, including - perhaps especially - government.  The view expressed by Mr. Ignatius indicates that the administration view pregnancy in primarily economic terms and not in human terms. 

To be fair, this attitude is not unique to this administration, not is it unique to "liberalism" - as I noted above it may even be found in a relatively conservative Christian denomination.  It permeates our culture and, I think, it is diametrically opposed to the Gospel we should proclaim.  Each person, born or unborn, is a unique individual made in the image of God.  He or she is not a resource to be exploited or human capital to be invested in but a person to be loved and respected for who he or she is as a unique image of God, no matter how depraved that particular image may be.