Claim. Ethics and morality do not originate in social contract or Roman law but in the heart of love between parents and children, and they make human beings valuable only insofar as they preserve the vertical-horizontal order that begins in the family.
Elaboration. SMM grounds morality below law, in the heart’s emotion: “Today, most laws in this world find their basis in Roman law. However, morality is based on conscience rather than law… Where is morality rooted? It is rooted in the heavenly law” (3.2. Ethics and morality give value to human beings, 33-44, 1970.8.2). The generative point is parental love: “The motivation for the establishment of ethics lies in the emotion of love. Ethics begin from the point of parents loving their children. True human relationships are established when children love their parents” (ibid, 64-124, 1972.10.29). The structural condition is order — vertical between generations (grandparents-parents-children) and horizontal between siblings — both modelled on “the principles of creation of the sun, moon and stars” (ibid, 122-304, 1982.11.25). The value of a human being is therefore measured by participation in this order: “People are valuable because of human morals and ethics” (ibid, 136-208, 1985.12.29). The implication: when family-rooted ethics fail, individual personhood loses its measure.
See also. four-position-foundation