This essay claims that one can consistently maintain a sanctity of human life principle that is explicitly grounded in theology, while making a kind of quality-of-life judgment regarding withholding or discontinuing life-sustaining treatments for those with advanced illnesses. For those who embrace them, resources that are specific to the Christian tradition delineate the parameters of responsibility for people dying with advanced illness and those who care for them. Those who embrace the sanctity of human life for the theological reasons provided in this essay are under no moral obligation to continue merely to sustain life at the end of life—that is, when, in view of our best available judgment, the human being (who remains inherently valuable nonetheless) will not ever be able to exemplify other human values that contribute to human flourishing, theologically understood.
{"title":"The Sanctity of Human Life, Qualified Quality-of-Life Judgments, and Dying Well Enough","authors":"Patrick T. Smith","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121342","url":null,"abstract":"This essay claims that one can consistently maintain a sanctity of human life principle that is explicitly grounded in theology, while making a kind of quality-of-life judgment regarding withholding or discontinuing life-sustaining treatments for those with advanced illnesses. For those who embrace them, resources that are specific to the Christian tradition delineate the parameters of responsibility for people dying with advanced illness and those who care for them. Those who embrace the sanctity of human life for the theological reasons provided in this essay are under no moral obligation to continue merely to sustain life at the end of life—that is, when, in view of our best available judgment, the human being (who remains inherently valuable nonetheless) will not ever be able to exemplify other human values that contribute to human flourishing, theologically understood.","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70948146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The preferential option for the poor is a concept and set of ideas in Catholic social teaching that is highly relevant to bioethics scholarship and practice. The option for the poor is mentioned frequently in the bioethics literature but with little specification of its history and implications for ethical and theological analysis. This article examines the origins and implications of the preferential option; compares it to critical race theory, which dominates current debates about discrimination and oppression; and proposes a set of principles for further application in bioethical scholarship and discussion.
{"title":"Preferential Option for the Poor and Critical Race Theory in Bioethics","authors":"Christopher M. Reilly","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121458","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121458","url":null,"abstract":"The preferential option for the poor is a concept and set of ideas in Catholic social teaching that is highly relevant to bioethics scholarship and practice. The option for the poor is mentioned frequently in the bioethics literature but with little specification of its history and implications for ethical and theological analysis. This article examines the origins and implications of the preferential option; compares it to critical race theory, which dominates current debates about discrimination and oppression; and proposes a set of principles for further application in bioethical scholarship and discussion.","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70948234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The essay begins with an explanation of St. Alphonsus Liguori’s understanding of the distinction between formal and material cooperation, identifying also some problems inherent in that understanding. The essay goes on to expound related ideas in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, ideas that are applicable to cases not easily analyzable by means of the distinction between formal and material cooperation. The essay then applies these ideas to two contemporary issues: the use of vaccines connected in some way with abortions and the objection by the Little Sisters of the Poor to the contraceptive mandate issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
{"title":"Avoiding Illicit Cooperation with Evil","authors":"K. Flannery","doi":"10.5840/NCBQ202121224","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/NCBQ202121224","url":null,"abstract":"The essay begins with an explanation of St. Alphonsus Liguori’s understanding of the distinction between formal and material cooperation, identifying also some problems inherent in that understanding. The essay goes on to expound related ideas in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, ideas that are applicable to cases not easily analyzable by means of the distinction between formal and material cooperation. The essay then applies these ideas to two contemporary issues: the use of vaccines connected in some way with abortions and the objection by the Little Sisters of the Poor to the contraceptive mandate issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services.","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70947321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher: A Monkey’s Head, the Pope’s Neuroscientist, and the Quest to Transplant the Soul by Brandy Schillace","authors":"Colten P. Maertens-Pizzo","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121234","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121234","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70947744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
New Natural Law Theory and the Catholic medico-moral tradition often lead to similar conclusions in hard cases regarding end-of-life care. Considering the provision of artificial nutrition and hydration to patients suffering from post-coma unresponsive wakefulness, however, brings to light subtle ways in which NNL differs from the centuries-old natural law tradition. In this essay, I formalize the methodology embedded within the casuistry of the medico-moral tradition and show how it differs from NNL with respect to the role played by double-effect reasoning and the perspective for analyzing cases regarding care for those who cannot speak for themselves. Importantly, the ordinary/extraordinary means distinction has never historically been understood as an application of double effect and logically cannot be so understood. Given the outsized role that double effect plays in NNL, the theory leads to conclusions that deviate from the Catholic medico-moral tradition and creates additional burdens and duties for the sick.
{"title":"Artificial Nutrition and Hydration and Care at the End of Life","authors":"D. Sulmasy","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121344","url":null,"abstract":"New Natural Law Theory and the Catholic medico-moral tradition often lead to similar conclusions in hard cases regarding end-of-life care. Considering the provision of artificial nutrition and hydration to patients suffering from post-coma unresponsive wakefulness, however, brings to light subtle ways in which NNL differs from the centuries-old natural law tradition. In this essay, I formalize the methodology embedded within the casuistry of the medico-moral tradition and show how it differs from NNL with respect to the role played by double-effect reasoning and the perspective for analyzing cases regarding care for those who cannot speak for themselves. Importantly, the ordinary/extraordinary means distinction has never historically been understood as an application of double effect and logically cannot be so understood. Given the outsized role that double effect plays in NNL, the theory leads to conclusions that deviate from the Catholic medico-moral tradition and creates additional burdens and duties for the sick.","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70947825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Influential Statements on the Provision of Artificial Nutrition and Hydration as a Means of Sustaining Life","authors":"MaryKatherine Gaurke, D. Sulmasy","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121345","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70947832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Address to the Participants in the Tenth National Congress of the Italian Society of Plastic Surgeons","authors":"","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121459","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121459","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70947846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although there is discussion among ethicists about the permissibility of actions on the antenatal placenta, these discussions rarely take seriously the metaphysics involved. Rather, authors resort to opinion on how the placenta comes to be and for whose good it exists. This paper takes these metaphysical questions seriously. Through discussion of the biology of the placenta, I conclude that it is a shared organ of the mother and the fetus. In an analogy to the ethics of conjoined twinning, I conclude that actions on the placenta must take the good of both the mother and the fetus into account.
{"title":"A Metaphysical Account of the Placenta as a Shared Organ","authors":"Elizabeth Parish","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121454","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121454","url":null,"abstract":"Although there is discussion among ethicists about the permissibility of actions on the antenatal placenta, these discussions rarely take seriously the metaphysics involved. Rather, authors resort to opinion on how the placenta comes to be and for whose good it exists. This paper takes these metaphysical questions seriously. Through discussion of the biology of the placenta, I conclude that it is a shared organ of the mother and the fetus. In an analogy to the ethics of conjoined twinning, I conclude that actions on the placenta must take the good of both the mother and the fetus into account.","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70947952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Clinical decisions about medically assisted nutrition require practical wisdom: a goal-directed virtue that makes decision-making purpose-oriented rather than intervention-focused. This deliberative process includes seven basic dimensions: diagnosis, prognosis, test or treatment, burdens, probabilities, goals of care, and clarification of diagnosis or prognosis. These must be integrated within a larger framework of meaning constituted by foundational beliefs and values—for example, social, philosophical, or theological perspectives on human identity, dignity, and purpose—that are substantive enough to explain the clinical context and clear enough to guide a reasoned response to it. This framework, which combines goal-oriented reasoning with empirical data, can clarify the assessment regarding the benefits of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy for persons with advanced dementia.
{"title":"Navigating Medically Assisted Nutrition in Advanced Dementia through Practical Wisdom and Goals of Care","authors":"L. Kaldjian","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121341","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121341","url":null,"abstract":"Clinical decisions about medically assisted nutrition require practical wisdom: a goal-directed virtue that makes decision-making purpose-oriented rather than intervention-focused. This deliberative process includes seven basic dimensions: diagnosis, prognosis, test or treatment, burdens, probabilities, goals of care, and clarification of diagnosis or prognosis. These must be integrated within a larger framework of meaning constituted by foundational beliefs and values—for example, social, philosophical, or theological perspectives on human identity, dignity, and purpose—that are substantive enough to explain the clinical context and clear enough to guide a reasoned response to it. This framework, which combines goal-oriented reasoning with empirical data, can clarify the assessment regarding the benefits of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy for persons with advanced dementia.","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70948197","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Responsum regarding the Blessing of the Unions of Persons of the Same Sex","authors":"","doi":"10.5840/ncbq202121111","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/ncbq202121111","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:p />","PeriodicalId":86269,"journal":{"name":"The national Catholic bioethics quarterly","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"70946791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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