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December 27, 2022

After an undistinguished business career, Adolf Eichmann finally achieved the gratifying pleasures of power and prestige that he had so long desired. He was the chief executive assigned to manage the logistics of Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Before it was all over, more than six million Jewish children, women, and men, along with millions of others, would be murdered in the Nazi extermination camps.

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In 1960, fifteen years after Germany’s WWII surrender and only after a relentless search, Israeli agents captured Eichmann hiding at his home near Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was brought to Israel, tried for crimes against humanity, and executed by hanging in June 1962.

Eichmann felt no sense of guilt for his actions. In his unsuccessful pardon plea, he matter-of-factly explained his belief that “There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders. I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty.”

Eichmann’s depraved rationalization was: In fulfilling one’s moral obligation, obedience to government mandate supersedes one’s conscience.

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The moral principle that an individual’s conscience — without reference to government mandate — must determine his or her position on social controversies such as slavery and suffrage remains true for all others — including the nasty issue of abortion.

Biden’s Conscience:

In the 2012 vice-presidential debates, Biden avowed that “My religion defines who I am.” “I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life,” and “With regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as what we call de fide doctrine. Life begins at conception.”

In a much later interview, Biden stated “I am a Catholic. I can’t say that without pointing out that I oppose abortion with all my heart and soul.”

Well, the Catholic doctrine on abortion that Biden claims that his conscience follows is unambiguous.

“In reality, respect for human life is called for from the time that the process of generation begins. From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor of the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with her/his own growth.” (Vatican Declaration on Procured Abortion (1974))