Birth, Suffering, and Death

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Finitude, Religion, and Medicine: The Search for Meaning in the Post-Modern World

   1. Finitude, Religion, and Medicine: The Search for Meaning in the Post-Modern World

      • Kevin Wm. Wildes

      Pages 1-7

3. Medical Background and Ethical Issues

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

      PDF

   2. Edges of Life: The Consequences of Prenatal Assessment, Diagnosis, and Treatment

      • Robert C. Cefalo

      Pages 11-31

   3. The Frail Elderly Person and Those Suffering From Dementia

      • John C. Harvey

      Pages 33-44

   4. The HIV Infection

      • Edwin Cassem

      Pages 45-65

   5. Artificial Feeding and Hydration in Advanced Illness

      • Porter Storey

      Pages 67-75

4. Theological Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 77-77

      PDF

   2. Dignity, Solidarity, and the Sanctity of Human Life

      • Antonio Autiero

      Pages 79-83

   3. Dominion or Stewardship?: Theological Reflections

      • Benedict M. Ashley

      Pages 85-106

   4. Sharing Responsibility at the Edges of Life

      • Diana Bader

      Pages 107-126

   5. When the Dying Person Looks Me in the Face: An Ethics of Responsibility for Dealing With the Problem of the Patient in a Persistent Vegetative State

      • Paul Schotsmans

      Pages 127-143

   6. Life as a Good and Our Obligations to Persistently Vegetative Patients

      • Kevin Wm. Wildes

      Pages 145-154

5. Moral Quandaries

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 155-155

      PDF

   2. Pain Relief: Ethical Issues and Catholic Teaching

      • Kevin D. O’Rourke

      Pages 157-169

   3. Why Almost Any Cost To Others To Preserve The Life Of The Irreversibly Comatose Constitutes An Extraordinary Burden

      • Thomas J. Bole III

      Pages 171-187

   4. The Catholic Tradition on the Use of Nutrition and Fluids

      • John J. Paris

      Pages 189-208

6. Back Matter

   Pages 209-236

   PDF

For centuries the Roman Catholic Church has been concerned with the moral implications of medical practice. Indeed, until two decades ago, Catholic moral theologians were the major source of moral guidance, scholarly reflection and teaching on a variety of medical-moral topics, particularly those bearing on human life. Many, not only those within the Catholic communion, turned to the Church for guidance as each new possibility for altering the conditions of human life posed new challenges to long held moral values. Two decades ago, the center of gravity of ethical reflection shifted sharply from theologians and Christian philosophers to more secular thinkers. A confluence of forces was responsible for this metamorphosi- an exponential rate of increase in medical technologies, expanded education of the public, the growth of participatory democracy, the entry of courts and legislation into what had previously been private matters, the trend of morality towards pluralism and individual freedom and the depreciation of church and religious doctrines generally. Most significant was the entry of professional philosophers into the debate, for the first time. It is a curious paradox that, until the mid-sixties, professional philosophers largely ignored medical ethics. Today they are the most influential shapers of public and professional opinion.

• Biomedical ethics
• Ethical Issues
• Moral
• Religion
• bioethics
• death
• ethics
• health
• infection
• medical ethics

• Department of Philosophy and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, USA

  Kevin Wm. Wildes

• Institut Borja de Bioetica, Barcelona, Spain

  Francesc Abel

• Centre for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University, USA

  John C. Harvey

Policies and ethics