[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 4 (Monday, January 28, 2002)]
[Pages 93-94]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7520--National Sanctity of Human Life Day, 2002

 January 18, 2002

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    This Nation was founded upon the belief that every human being is 
endowed by our Creator with certain ``unalienable rights.'' Chief among 
them is the right to life itself. The Signers of the Declaration of 
Independence pledged their own lives, fortunes, and honor to guarantee 
inalienable rights for all of the new country's citizens. These 
visionaries recognized that an essential human dignity attached to all 
persons by virtue of their very existence and not just to the strong, 
the independent, or the healthy. That value should apply to every 
American, including the elderly and the unprotected, the weak and the 
infirm, and even to the unwanted.
    Thomas Jefferson wrote that, ``[t]he care of human life and 
happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate 
object of good government.'' President Jefferson was right. Life is an 
inalienable right, understood as given to each of us by our Creator.
    President Jefferson's timeless principle obligates us to pursue a 
civil society that will democratically embrace its essential moral 
duties, including defending the elderly, strengthening the weak, 
protecting the defenseless, feeding the hungry, and caring for 
children--born and unborn. Mindful of these and other obligations, we 
should join together in pursuit of a more compassionate society, 
rejecting the notion that some lives are less worthy of protection than 
others, whether because of age or illness, social circumstance or 
economic condition. Consistent with the core principles about which 
Thomas Jefferson wrote, and to which the Founders subscribed, we should 
peacefully commit ourselves to seeking a society that values life--from 
its very beginnings to its natural end. Unborn children should be 
welcomed in life and protected in law.
    On September 11, we saw clearly that evil exists in this world, and 
that it does not value life. The terrible events of that fateful day 
have given us, as a Nation, a greater understanding about the value and 
wonder of life. Every innocent life taken that day was the most 
important person on earth to somebody; and every death extinguished a 
world. Now we are engaged in a fight against evil and tyranny to 
preserve and protect life. In so doing, we are standing again for those 
core principles upon which our Nation was founded.
     Now, Therefore, I, George W. Bush, President of the United States 
of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 
and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Sunday, January 
20, 2002, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all 
Americans to reflect upon the sanctity of human life. Let us recognize 
the day with appropriate ceremonies in our homes and places of worship, 
rededicate ourselves to compassionate service on behalf of the weak and 
defenseless, and reaffirm our commitment to respect the life and dignity 
of every human being.
     In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighteenth day 
of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand two, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
sixth.
                                                George W. Bush

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., January 23, 
2002]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on January 
24. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.

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