Secular Bioethics in Theological Perspective

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Secular Inadequacies and Theological Contributions

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Bioethics and the Spirit of Secularism

      • Courtney S. Campbell

      Pages 3-18

   3. Minding Our Language: Metaphors and Biomedical Ethics

      • Gerald R. Winslow

      Pages 19-30

   4. Reform and Rationing: Reflections on Health Care in Light of Catholic Social Teaching

      • B. Andrew Lustig

      Pages 31-50

   5. The Post-Modern Challenge to Religious Sources of Moral Thinking

      • David C. Thomasma

      Pages 51-74

   6. Theology and the Rawlsian Original Position: Inventing and Discovering Moral Principles

      • Robert M. Veatch

      Pages 75-84

   7. The Weeping Womb: Why Beneficence Needs the still Small Voice of Compassion

      • Karen Lebacqz

      Pages 85-96

3. Practices, Concepts, Methods, and Theories

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 97-97

      PDF

   2. Tunnel Vision or Moral Discourse? An Insider’s View of Bioethics in a Medical Center

      • Timothy E. Madison

      Pages 99-114

   3. The Medical Futility Discussion: Some Theological Suggestions

      • Stephen E. Lammers

      Pages 115-128

   4. Overworked, but Uncritically Tested: Human Dignity and the Aid-in-Dying Debate

      • Michael M. Mendiola

      Pages 129-143

   5. Physician-Assisted Death: A Pyrrhic Victory for Secular Bioethics

      • Gerald P. McKenny

      Pages 145-158

   6. The Narrative Ethics of Stanley Hauerwas: A Question of Method

      • Paul D. Simmons

      Pages 159-176

   7. Genetics and Freedom: A Critique of Sociobiological Claims

      • Thomas A. Shannon

      Pages 177-202

   8. A Comparative Appraisal of Theocentric and Humanistic Ethics Systems in the Clinical Encounter

      • Robert Lyman Potter

      Pages 203-217

4. Back Matter

   Pages 219-225

   PDF

Theologians and theologically educated participants in discussions of bioethics have been placed on the defensive during recent years. The dominance of religious perspectives and theological voices that marked the emergence and establishment of "bioethics" in the late 1960s and 1970s has eroded steadily as philosophers, lawyers, and others have relativized their role and influ­ ence, at best, or dismissed it entirely, at worst. The secularization of bioethics, which has occurred for a variety of reasons, has prompted some prominent writers to reflect on what has been lost. Daniel Callahan, for example writes, " . . . whatever the ultimate truth status of religious perspectives, they have provided a way of looking at the world and understanding one's own life that has a fecundity and uniqueness not matched by philosophy, law, or political theory. Those of us who have lost our reli­ gious faith may be glad that we have discovered what we take to be the reality of things, but we can still recognize that we have also lost something of great value as well: the faith, vision, insights, and experience of whole peoples and traditions who, no less than we unbelievers, struggled to make sense of things. That those goods are part of a garment we no longer want to wear does not make their loss anything other than still a loss; and it is not a neglible one" ([2], p. 2).

• Biomedical ethics
• Ethics
• Medical Ethics
• Religion
• autonomy
• beneficence
• bioethics
• health
• morality

• The Foundation for Interfaith Resarch and Ministry, Houston, USA

  Earl E. Shelp

Policies and ethics