Tag: laws

On
John Huebscher

Voter ID laws do more harm than good

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher

The “principle of proportionality” is a useful tool for evaluating laws and public policy. It suggests that the remedy should not create more problems than it solves.

Put another way, the principle means: “Thou shalt not use a sledgehammer to kill a fly.” Moreover, in assessing whether a law’s impact is proportionate, we must take special care to weigh its impact on those who have a special claim on our concern: the poor and marginalized in our society.

The principle of proportionality can be quite helpful when applied to proposals to require law-abiding citizens to produce a photo ID card prior to voting in Wisconsin.

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On
John Huebscher

Voter ID laws do more harm than good

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher

The “principle of proportionality” is a useful tool for evaluating laws and public policy. It suggests that the remedy should not create more problems than it solves.

Put another way, the principle means: “Thou shalt not use a sledgehammer to kill a fly.” Moreover, in assessing whether a law’s impact is proportionate, we must take special care to weigh its impact on those who have a special claim on our concern: the poor and marginalized in our society.

The principle of proportionality can be quite helpful when applied to proposals to require law-abiding citizens to produce a photo ID card prior to voting in Wisconsin.

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On
Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Dangers of human stockpiling

A recent news report chronicled a Chinese woman named Huang Yijun. Sixty years ago, her unborn child died, but the pregnancy was never expelled from her body. Instead, her baby’s body slowly began to calcify inside her, becoming a crystallized, stone-like mass.

Such stone babies (known as lithopedions) are extremely rare. When Mrs. Huang was 92 years old, the baby was discovered in her abdomen and surgically removed.

This rare medical event prompts us to consider a thought experiment. Imagine a drug that could be injected into a child to crystallize him, but without killing him. The process would turn the child into a static mass for as many years as the parents wanted; another injection would reverse the process, and allow the child to wake up and continue growing.

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