The speaker put it right out there: The culture that puts a high value on individual autonomy -- physical, moral or legal -- is, essentially, on a death trip.

Helen Alvare, law professor at George Mason University and an adviser to U.S. bishops on pro-life issues, was speaking on abortion law today. She addressed the two-day "Washington Briefing" under way under the sponsorship of Catholic weekly, the National Catholic Reporter, and Trinity University, a Catholic-founded college just blocks from the U.S. bishops' headquarters here.

Alvare began with a rapid-fire review of all the valuable things the Church is doing to combat abortion with education, support and care for women. But the truth about the human being, "based in natural law and illuminated by Catholic teachings," she said, " is that we are meant to live with and for others," not in solo, self-chosen orbits. In her view, no decision about abortion is ever really just about one woman's choice.