Henry Morgentaler

From Philosopedia

Morgentaler, Henry (19 March 1923– )

On November 24 1999, Dr. Morgentaler declared himself atheist on the program Les francs Tireurs on the French-speaking TV station Tele Quebec. He has been the president of La Libre Pensée for the past few years, a French-speaking association of freethinkers. He was named Humanist of the Year by The Alliance of Secular Humanist Societies at their congress at Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Morgentaler was born in Łódź, Poland, is a Holocaust survivor, was one of the founders in 1968 of the Humanist Association of Canada, serving as its first president. He spent the last nine months of World War II in German concentration camps, moving to Montreal in 1950. He is a leading campaigner in Canada for the legalization of abortion, and he has expressed pride in having performed 65,000 abortions. Eight clinics in major cities across Canada bear his name. In 1992 his first clinic, in Toronto, exploded in a fiery blast. Members of the Campaign Life Coalition, he said, pray for him daily: “They think I’m the embodiment of the devil.” Inasmuch as surgeons have been threatened and even killed, he wears a bulletproof vest to work.

At the 1990 Humanist World Congress, Morgentaler said,

• Humanism is not just an intellectual philosophy, but also has practical implications in its aim to create the full realisation of all human potential. . . . Humankind is facing unresolved Humanist problems: population, environment, nuclear risks, ethnic and tribal conflicts. Humanism is devoted to human welfare, to the acceptance of democracy and the peaceful resolution of conflict by a constructive rational solution to problems.

In 1973, he was named the first Humanist of the Year by the Canadian Humanist Association. In 1975 he was so named by the American Humanist Association. In 1999 he received the annual award of the Bertrand Russell Society, saying,

• I have been a great admirer of Bertrand Russell and consider him one of my mentors, the man who deeply influenced my philosophy of life. As founder of the Humanist Association of Canada, I have often quoted Bertrand Russell, especially his saying that "the good life is based on love guided by reason.”

A physician who was born in Poland, Dr. Morgentaler spent six years in Nazi concentration camps before going to Canada. He has written Abortion and Contraception (1982).

In an article, “Secular Humanism Versus Christianity” in Humanist in Canada (Spring 1990), Morgentaler stated,

• I believe people should be made aware that it is possible to develop a life-style and a commitment to human values without the necessity of believing in God or the illusions of immortality. . . . It is this commitment to the values of secular humanism, embodying the desire for justice and a better society, that is the origin of my twenty-year-old struggle for women’s right to safe medical abortions. . . . It is time we all change our attitudes and learn to live in peace and harmony in spite of religious or ideological differences.

Morgentaler, who is on the Board of Governors of The Humanist Institute, signed Humanist Manifesto II and Humanist Manifesto 2000. At the Tenth International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) World Congress held in Buffalo (1988), Morgentaler addressed the group. In 1990, he presided over the Eleventh World Congress held in Brussels. Also in 1990, at Carleton University, he debated Michael Horner on the subject, “Secular Humanism vs. Christian Humanism: Which is the Superior World View?” He has addressed the Toronto conference of the Coalition for Secular Humanism, Atheism, and Freethought (CSHAFT).

A biography by journalist Catherine Dunphy, Morgentaler: A Difficult Hero (1997), showed Morgentaler as being at times impatient and stubborn, a difficult person to work with. However, he has many Canadians, particularly women, who support his efforts, and he is an important personage in Canadian humanism.

{Anthony DePalma, The New York Times, 10 November 1998; E; HM2; HNS2; Henry Morgentaler, “The Moral Case for Abortion,” Free Inquiry, Summer 1996; Humanist in Canada, Winter 1997-1998; SHD}