Legislating morality and the "fight" against AIDS
On page 24A of the Sunday Sun (October 15th 2006) Dr. Wayne Greaves said he would back decriminalizing Barbados’ laws so that those people fighting the spread of the deadly disease (HIV/AIDS) could reach more prostitutes and homosexuals, or bi-sexual men. “Controlling the spread of the disease and the public health problem caused by the disease while saving lives is more important than any individual’s prejudice about morality or otherwise.”
These dubious comments raise two important issues, namely, legislating morality and the idea that decriminalizing high-risk sexual, immoral behaviour will somehow aid in the fight against HIV/AIDS. It was G. K. Chesterton who alluded to the fact that before tearing down a fence, one should always pause long enough to ask themselves why it was put there in the first place.
One of the more disturbing trends early in the 21st century is the deliberate departure from traditional values. We are enduring what Gertrude Himmelfarb called the de-moralization of society. Asinine fatuity is therefore the kindest description we could give to the idea that legalizing any immoral, high-risk sexual behaviour will aid in the “fight” against HIV/AIDS. The morality in the law, whether moral or immoral, tends to become the morality of the people. Take the following example from the United States. Before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, about 100,000 abortions were performed in the US annually. After Row v. Wade, the number rose to between 1.2 and 1.5 million a year. There are countless other examples one could list, but the fact is, law is always a tutor to morals and a shaper of national character – whether good or evil, moral or immoral.
If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. Similarly, errors are errors regardless of either their prevalence or the persistence of those who advance them. Therefore, no matter how often one hears that you cannot legislate morality, the truth is that you cannot legislate anything else but morality. All laws, whether permissive or prohibitive, legislate morality. All laws, regardless of their content or their intent, arise from a system of values, from a belief that some things are right and others wrong. When it comes to the question of legislation and morality, the question is never whether or not morality will be legislated but which one – for better or worse – will become the law of the land.
One of the functions of law is moral education. Only a well-formed, morally responsible law can help to develop right thinking and right choosing people in a society. Good and decent people do not simply happen, they are nurtured. And whether we admit it or not, the law plays a part in teaching. Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have bad consequences. Decriminalizing prostitution, homosexuality (or any other immoral behaviour for that matter) is a very bad idea. The idea simply smacks of intellectual laziness.
As Michael Bauman, Professor of Theology and Culture, put it: “We must not forget that law is an expression of and a shaper of the conscience of a nation. Consequently, the nearsighted and misguided movement to separate law from morality is as dangerous as it is impossible. Both for nations and for us as individuals, our character is our future. Morality is destiny.”
