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Subsections
Birth Control
Ensoulment in Womb
In Vitro
Abortion
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Order of Contents
Articles 4
Books 3
Audio 1
Secular Books 8
. Anthologies 2
. Case Studies 4
Brain Death 3
Euthanasia 1
History 1
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Articles
1900’s
McCarthy, John Canon – Problems in Theology II: the Commandments (Dublin, 1959), sect. 5, 5th [6th] Commandment
Direct and indirect suicide 119
The morality of the amputation of a healthy organ 123
The Encyclical Casti Connubii [1930] and punitive sterilization 124
The morality of organic transplantation 130
Direct and indirect abortion. Ectopic pregnancy 139
Penalty for co-operation in abortion 148
Taking of insulin to preserve life 150
The giving of drugs to the dying 153
The morality of vivisection 155
Papal address and indirect killing 158
The morality of the use of the ‘ truth-drug ’ 162
The Catholic teaching on narcoanalysis—discussion at
Medical Congress 167
The morality of prefrontal leucotomy 169
Cahiers Laennec—Articles on Psycho-Surgery 175-77
McCarthy was a Romanist professor of moral theology and generally provides good discussions of these subjects with conservative answers.
Bird, Lewis – ch. 7, ‘Dilemmas in Biomedical Ethics’ in Horizons of Science: Christian Scholars Speak Out…, ed. Carl Henry (Harper & Row, 1978), pp. 131-55
ToC
Intro 131
Issues in Defining Human Personhood 135
Issues in Defining Human Suffering 143
Issues in Defining Human Death 146
Issues in Defining Human Responsibility 148
Conclusion 150
Fisher, Anthony – ‘Cooperation in Evil’ in Catholic Medical Quarterly, 44(3) (Feb, 1994), pp. 15-22 at EWTN
Fisher is a Romanist. This article focuses on material cooperation, or the lack thereof, in medical ethics. It is very good on the topic.
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2000’s
Grisez, Germain
‘Bioethics & Christian Anthropology’ in National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, vol.1, no.1 (Spring, 2001), pp. 33-38
Grisez (1929–2018) was a prominent French-American, Roman Catholic, layman, professor of moral philosophy. He was broadly Thomistic, but departed from Aquinas on significant points (so some say).
‘Dualism & the New Morality’ (1977)
“Even now, at this very moment, we are not selves having and using bodies. We are bodies—we are rational, sentient, organic bodies. Modern thought has rejected this truth. But the fact remains that the human person is a certain, special kind of body… Human biological processes are not possessions and instruments of the person; they are parts of the life of the person…
The human soul, which is the person’s intellectual principle, is united to the body as form. As form of the body, the soul is not merely a moving principle of the body. Nor is the soul an agent of which the body is instrument. Rather, the soul is an intrinsic principle of the human person. The soul makes the person be the body he or she is. Nor is there any other form which makes the body be body than the soul by which the person has the capacities of intellect and free choice. Each person has his
or her own soul; substantial unity excludes many individuals having the same soul. Since the soul and the body are not distinct entities, no link is needed to unite soul and body. The human soul, as formal part of the body, makes the entire human body be a person; the entire soul is present in every part of the body. All of these points are explained by St. Thomas in a compact, synthetic treatise (S. t., I, qu. 78)…
Classical modern philosophy substitued a radical dualism for the substantial unity of man. In Descartes, man is a thinking subject—cogito ergo sum—and the body is consigned to the objective world. In Hume, man is a momentarily unified consciousness—personal identity is continuity by memory over time—and the body is merely one set for phenomena among others…
If the person really is not his body, then the destruction of the life of the body is not directly and in itself an attack on a value intrinsic to the human person… If the person really is not his or her own body, then the use of the sexual organs in a manner
which does not respect their proper biological teleology is not directly and in itself the perversion of a good of the human person…
A manufactured individual will be a person; he or she will deserve our respect as one sharing in personal dignity… But such an individual also will be a product. The producer is on a different level, inescapably superior, from the level of the product. The producer always can say to his product: “I
produced you, I can destroy you; I am lord of your life, I am lord of your death”. If human beings are to share in the same personal dignity, they must be begotten, not made. Only in being begotten does an offspring share the same nature and the same personal dignity as his or her parents.” – pp. 323-27
Question F: ‘What are One’s Responsibilities with Respect to Health?’ in ch. 8, ‘Life, Health & Bodily Inviolability’ in Living a Christian Life
II. ‘A Christian Ethics of Limiting Medical Treatment: Guidance for Patients, Proxy Decision Makers & Counselors’ in eds. Francis J. Lescoe & David Q. Liptak, Pope John Paul II Lecture Series in Bioethics (Mariel Publications, 1986), vol. 2, Bioethical Issues
with May, Barry, Griese, Johnstone, et al. – ‘Feeding & Hydrating the Permanently Unconscious & Other Vulnerable Persons’ in Issues in Law & Medicine, vol. 3, no. 3 (Winter 1987), pp. 203-17
‘Should Nutrition & Hydration be Provided to Permanently Unconscious & Other Mentally Disabled Persons?’ in Issues in Law & Medicine, vol. 5, no. 2 (Fall, 1989), pp. 165-79
12. ‘Health Care Technology & Justice’ in Bioethics with Liberty & Justice: Themes in the Work of Joseph M. Boyle (Springer, 2011), pp. 221-39
May, William
May was a Roman Catholic professor of moral theology at the Catholic University of America. He follows Grisez on the issues.
‘Bioethics & Theology: How are they Related?’ (2003)
‘Leon Kass & the Challenge of Bioethics’ (2003)
Kass (b. 1939) is a Jewish American physician, biochemist, educator, and public intellectual and has been a critic of human cloning, life extension, euthanasia and embryo research. He was the chairman of the President Bush’s Council on Bioethics from 2001 to 2005.
May says of Kass’s book, Life, Liberty & the Defense of Dignity: The Challenge for Bioethics:
“this is unquestionably one of the most important books on bioethics ever published. It is filled with wisdom, raising questions of utmost significance and providing direction to answering them honestly and truly. I have already noted my disappointment over Kass’s treatment of in vitro fertilization and his ambiguity over the status of embryonic human beings.”
Kass:
“In order effectively to serve the needs of human life, modern biology reconstructed the nature of the organic body, representing it not as something animated, purposive and striving, but as dead matter-in-motion. This reductive science has given us enormous power, but it offers no standards to guide its use. Worse, it challenges our self-understanding as creatures of dignity, rendering us incapable of recognizing dangers to our humanity that arise from the very triumphs biology has made.”
‘What is a Human Person & who counts as a Human Person?” a Crucial Question for Bioethics’ (2004)
Free Reformed Churches of North America – Resources for Office-Bearers in Dealing with Bio-Ethical Questions, 1 2 (2009)
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Books
1900’s
Childress, J. – Priorities in Biomedical Ethics (Westminster Press, 1981) 140 pp. ToC The publisher is liberal.
Payne, Franklin – Biblical/Medical Ethics: the Christian & the Practice of Medicine (Milford, MI: Mott Media, 1985) 285 pp. ToC
Frame, John M. – Medical Ethics: Principles, Persons & Problems (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1988) 150 pp. ToC
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Audio
1900’s
Bahnsen, Greg – Biblical Standards for Medical Ethics (n.d.) 8 Lectures
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Secular Books
Intro
Hope, Tony – Medical Ethics: a Very Short Intro (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004) 160 pp. ToC
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1900’s
eds. Kuhse & Singer – A Companion to Bioethics in Blackwell Companions to Philosophy (Blackwell, 2001) 520 pp. ToC
Singer & Viens – The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics (Cambridge, 2008) 550 pp. ToC
eds. Degrazia, Mappes, Brand-Ballard – Biomedical Ethics 7th ed. (McGraw Hill, 2011) 750 pp. ToC
Devetterre, Raymond – Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics 4th ed. (Georgetown Univ. Press, 2016) 675 pp.
Kilner, John – Who Lives, Who Dies?: Ethical Criteria in Patient Selection (Yale Univ. Press, 1990) 375 pp. ToC
Vaughn, Lewis – Bioethics: Principles, Issues & Cases (Oxford Univ. Press, 2017) 825 pp. ToC
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2000’s
ed. Steinbock, Bonnie – The Oxford Handbook of Bioethics (Oxford, 2007) 770 pp.
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Secular Anthologies
2000’s
eds. Steinbock, Arras, London – Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine: Contemporary Readings in Bioethics 7th ed. (McGraw Hill, 2008) 925 pp. ToC
eds. Kuhse, Schuklenk & Singer – Bioethics: an Anthology 3rd ed. (Blackwell, 2016) 790 pp. ToC
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Secular: Case Studies
Books
2000’s
Murphy, Timothy – Case Studies in Biomedical Research Ethics (MIT Press, 2004) 350 pp. ToC
Veatch, Haddad, English – Case Studies in Biomedical Ethics: Decision-Making, Principles & Cases 2nd ed. (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015) 475 pp. ToC
Pence, Gregory – Medical Ethics: Accounts of Ground Breaking Cases (McGraw Hill, 2017) 450 pp. ToC
Vaughn, Lewis – Bioethics: Principles, Issues & Cases (Oxford Univ. Press, 2017) 825 pp. ToC
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On Brain Death
Articles
1900’s
Frame, John – Appendix A: ‘Recent Critiques of the Brain-Death Criterion’ in Medical Ethics: Principles, Persons & Problems (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1988), pp. 75-83
Byrne, Paul & George Rinkowski – ”Brain Death’ is False’ in Linacre Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 1, art. 5 (Feb. 1999), pp. 42-48
“Dr. Diamond, near the end of his article, states that ‘the Byrne
standard or the new Shewmon standard would effectively end 90% of all human organ transplantation, or possibly 100% of unpaired vital organ transplantation….'” – p. 42
“To consider the brain as the site or the location of life of the body is a misconception of either the soul or the life of a person. The soul is the life of the body; the person is not an insert located someplace within the confines of the body. The reality of soul and life are whole and entire in the soul and whole and entire in each part. The soul has no parts but the
person formed by soul and body has parts. A better way of portraying the locus of the soul is to realize that the soul contains rather than is contained in the body. The soul is spiritual without parts, simple in the true sense of the word (Cf. Summa of St. Thomas I,P. Q. 75, a.3, Q. 118, a.2, and really
all questions from 75 through 118).
It seems that concentration on the brain in “brain-death” is a ploy related to the harvest of organs. There is dishonesty in the false re-structuring of the human body and changing the definition of the human person to assume ownership with title to dispose of parts.” – p. 46
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2000’s
Lee, Patrick & Germain Grisez – ‘Total Brain Death: a Reply to Alan Shewmon’ Bioethics, vol. 26, no. 5 (2012), pp. 275-84
Abstract: “D. Alan Shewmon has advanced a well-documented challenge to the widely accepted total brain death criterion for death of the human being. We show that Shewmon’s argument against this criterion is unsound… Since human beings are rational animals – sentient organisms of a specific type – the loss of the radical capacity for sentience (the capacity to sense or to develop the capacity to sense) involves a substantial change, the passing away of the human organism. In human beings total brain death involves the complete loss of the radical capacity for sentience, and so in human beings total brain death is death.”
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On Euthanasia
Book
1900’s
Grisez, Germain & Joseph Boyle, Jr. – Life & Death with Liberty & Justice: a Contribution to the Euthanasia Debate (Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 1979) 530 pp. ToC
Grisez and Boyle are Roman Catholic ethicists in the Thomist tradition and are against all euthanasia. This is a careful, nuanced and rigorous analysis of the issues. One will learn much about ethics and philosophy in perusing it.
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History
Whole of History
Book
Etziony, M.B. – The Physician’s Creed: an Anthology of Medical Prayers, Oaths & Codes of Ethics written and recited by Medical Practitioners through the Ages (Springfield, Il: Charles Thomas, 1973) 215 pp. ToC
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Related Pages
On the Ethics of Material Cooperation with, & Associations with Evil