36-A steadfast caretaker of the gift of life from conception to natural death
Bishop Murphy was an unyielding defender of the sanctity of life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. He expressed the following thoughts in a column in the September 25, 1983 edition of the Montana Catholic Register, “The church’s teaching on abortion is but a consequence of the conviction that human life is sacred which must be protected and sustained from conception. The life of no innocent person, born or unborn, may be taken directly. Neither parents nor government nor society give the right to life to the unborn child – nor may they take away that right. To subordinate the life of the unborn to the personal values of others or to the goals of society is morally unacceptable.”