'...not just the premier
Christian bioethics institute in Britain,
but one of the finest in the
world, Christian or secular'
Most Rev. Anthony Fisher O.P., Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
Issues for a Catholic Bioethic
Luke
Gormally (ed.)
This volume contains all the invited papers delivered at the
1997 International Bioethics Conference hosted by the Linacre Centre. There is
also a small selection of supplementary contributions.
Contents
Introduction - Luke Gormally
Opening Address - Cardinal Thomas J Winning
The ecclesial context of Catholic bioethics
The Church's Magisterium in face of the moral crisis of our
time
- Cardinal Cahal B Daly
Catholics and Anglicans and contemporary bioethics: divided
or united?
- Michael Banner
Medicine, moral crisis and the need for evangelization: the
challenge to Christians in Western liberal societies - Michael Waldstein
Anthropology
Bioethics and the philosophy of the human body - John
Haldane
Biblical anthropology and medical ethics - Gregory Glazov
Sexual ethics
The nuptial meaning of the body and sexual ethics
- Jorge Vincente Arregui
Formation in chastity: the need and the requirements
- Bartholomew Kiely SJ
Situating health care
Healthcare as part of a Christian's vocation - Germain
Grisez
The encounter with suffering in the practice of medicine in
the light of Christian revelation - David Albert Jones OP
Medicine as a profession and the meaning of health as its
goal
- Luke Gormally
Integrity in health care
Collaboration and integrity: how to think clearly about
moral problems of co-operation - Joseph Boyle
Is there a distinctive role for the Catholic hospital in a
pluralist society? - Anthony Fisher OP
Law, public policy, and the pro-life cause
The legal revolution: from 'sanctity of life' to 'quality of
life' and `autonomy'- John Keown
The Catholic Church and public policy debates in Western
liberal societies: the basis and limits of intellectual engagement - John
Finnis
Bioethics and public policy: Catholic participation in the
American debate
- Robert P George with William L Saunders
The pro-life cause in Great Britain: reflections on success
and failure, and on the Church's record and the present challenge - Jack
Scarisbrick
Disputed questions
Is it reasonable to use the UK protocol for the clinical
diagnosis of 'brain stem death' as a basis for diagnosing death? - Alan
Shewmon
Can a patient's refusal of life-prolonging treatment be
morally upright when it is motivated neither by the belief that the
treatment would be clearly futile nor by the belief that the consequences of
treatment would be unduly burdensome? - Bernadette Tobin
Are there any circumstances in which it would be morally
admirable for a woman to seek to have an orphan embryo implanted in her
womb?
- Mary Geach and Helen Watt
Is the 'medical management' of ectopic pregnancy by the
administration of methotrexate morally acceptable?
- Christopher Kaczor and Gerald Gleeson
Contributors
Index of Names
Reviews
"In the summer of 1997 the Linacre Centre, the widely-respected Catholic
bioethical research institution, held a conference in Cambridge to celebrate
twenty years of existence. Here its director brings together seventeen papers
presented at the conference, three exchanges and the opening address by
Cardinal Winning, a collection which conveys a sense of varied and interesting
proceedings..... it conveys predictably that Catholic bioethics has as much
concern with philosophical issues about body and soul as it has to do with
medical casuistry. Less predictably it offers some welcome indications that
current Catholic discussion is biblically, as well as philosophically formed:
a rather good section called `Anthropology' contains two memorable essays,
one by Professor John Haldane on the philosophy of the body and one by Gregory
Glazov on biblical anthropology. There are discussions of sexual ethics
(with especial reference to John-Paul II's allocutions) as well as of the
vocation of health care and the vocation to suffer. But there is attention
to practical questions, too. Six contributions concern themselves with the
relation of Catholic medical practice to the norms of contemporary secular
society, and especially the problem of cooperation in evil, an understandable
preoccupation. Here Anthony Fisher contributes a fine, and by turns entertaining,
discussion of the position of Catholic hospitals. Two contrasting articles
by lawyers discuss the revolution in British law (John Keown), and the logic
of the Catholic contribution to public debate (John Finnis). Others treat
of the political fortunes of pro-life movements on either side of the Atlantic.
There is also a group of four discussions of `Disputed Questions' not
that the other questions are undisputed! attending to special cruces of
medical practice. Pride of place for potential importance here goes to D.
Alan Shewmon's attack on the criteria for `brain-stem' death; Professor
Shewmon has apparently been arguing his case for fifteen years, but some
of us, like myself, have not caught up with it before. It is partly philosophical,
in a rather scholastic Thomist mode, and partly empirical and it is the
empirical side of it that should not be missed by those concerned with the
topic. It is a point on which the Catholic ability to mount a challenge
to accepted practice is seen at its strongest and most persuasive.......
On a much more limited issue, Christopher Kaczor launches a precise and
well-aimed assault, which Gerald Gleeson proves unable to ward off, upon
the use of methotrexate in the management of ectopic pregnancy.
What is the relation between Catholic bioethics, as it is practised and
discussed in characteristic isolation, and Christian bioethics, defined
both by the wider church and by the demands of theology? Professor Michael
Banner, an Anglican acting as the conference's ecumenical conscience, addresses
this question in typically robust style, attending to the contributions
of John-Paul II, among which Veritatis Splendor and the CDF's Donum Vitae
attract his admiration, while he finds Evangelium Vitae disappointing.
....this is a worthy celebration of two decades for which many non-Catholic
Christians engaged in bioethics are grateful."
- Oliver O'Donovan.
New Blackfriars April 2000
"Edited by Luke Gormally, the list of contributors
to this volume makes impressive reading. It is made up of the invited papers
and a small selection of submitted papers given at an international conference
held at Queen's College, Cambridge in July 1997, to celebrate the twentieth
anniversary of the foundation of the Linacre Centre. The Centre was established
in 1977 to assist Catholics working in the fields of healthcare and biomedical
research to confront the ethical issues that they may encounter in their
work, in the light of the Church's teaching of moral truth. The papers presented
in this volume are intellectually challenging and stimulating, ranging from
more abstract and philosophical notions such as the basic understanding
of human life and the nature of suffering, to more concrete issues such
as brain stem death protocols and refusal of life saving treatment. John
Keown's excellent paper on the misrepresentation and erosion of the sanctity
of life principle in contemporary legal decisions deserves particular mention.
His critical analysis of the confusing and at times contradictory judgements
in Bland is thought provoking and eloquent, and of interest even to those
who may not agree with his conclusions.
This illustrates the point that, although this volume
is naturally presented from a Catholic perspective, there is much to be
gained by those who may not necessarily share this tradition. This is a
collection of the thoughts of some leading Catholic intellects, expounding
what they see as the moral crisis of our times brought about by the abandonment
of universal moral norms and the growth of moral relativism and subjectivism.
There remains, however, plenty of scope for argument and disagreement within
the universal norms present within the Catholic tradition. This is apparent
throughout, particularly in the discussion of the moral acceptability or
otherwise of the `medical management' of ectopic pregnancy by the administration
of methotrexate. For those who might mistakenly believe that the teachings
of a religious tradition will always provide straightforward and uncontroversial
moral guidance in difficult situations, this is a clear reminder that it
is not always so.
This volume is certainly a great deal more than a
simple exposition of the principal tenets of the Catholic faith, and how
these might be applied to difficult medical dilemmas. As such, it is not
for those who seek a clear and concise overview of how a Catholic should
decide moral issues in the medical sphere. But as a collection of papers
it offers an interesting insight into some contemporary issues of importance
to us all."
Bulletin of Medical Ethics October
2000
"This substantial volume
is a collection of papers presented at a July 1997 international conference
commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare
Ethics. Established in 1977 by the five Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archbishops
of England and Wales to be a bioethical think tank in the Catholic tradition,
the Linacre Centre is in a sense the United Kingdom's equivalent of The
National Catholic Bioethics Center. Edited by Linacre's Director Emeritus
Luke Gormally, who served at the Centre from 1981 through the year 2000,
this volume will prove to be a welcome addition to bioethical reflection
in the light of Catholic teaching.
For those interested in an overview of the volume, Gormally's introduction
(pp. 1-12) provides an adequate summary, giving the reader just enough information
to whet the appetite for further reading. The one exception to this general
rule is the one-paragraph summary of the last section, "Disputed Questions"
(pp. 313-370). Here, Gormally is content with a scant overview of that part
of the volume which arguably will be of greatest interest to those who deal
with the practical applications of Catholic teaching in health care settings.
... This volume should be on the shelf of
any serious student of Catholic bioethics"
- Germain Kopaczynski OFM
Conv.
National Catholic Bioethics
Quarterly
Summer 2001
"...this book... shows that
Catholic thinking on bioethical issues can be fully orthodox and rationally
strong. It is also useful in practice."
