Defense of Dignity

Kaczor Christopher

Description

Questions about the dignity of the human person give rise to many of the most central and hotly disputed topics in bioethics. In A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience, Christopher Kaczor investigates whether each human being has intrinsic dignity and whether the very concept of "dignity" has a useful place in contemporary ethical debates. Kaczor explores a broad range of issues addressed in contemporary bioethics, including whether there is a duty of "procreative beneficence," the ethics of ectopic pregnancy, and the possibility of "rescuing" human embryos with human wombs or artificial wombs. A Defense of Dignity also treats issues relevant to the end of life, including physician-assisted suicide, provision of food and water to patients in a persistent vegetative state, and how to proceed with organ donation following death. Finally, what are the duties and prerogatives of health care professionals who refuse in conscience to take part in activities that they regard as degrading to human dignity? Should they be forced to do what they consider to be violations of the patient's well being, or does patient autonomy always trump the conscience of a health care professional?

Grounded in the Catholic intellectual and moral tradition, A Defense of Dignity argues that all human beings from the beginning to the end of their lives should be treated with respect and considers how this belief should be applied in controversial cases.

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie politique
• Philosophie de la religion
• Political
• Medieval
• Religious
• HISTORY
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Edad Media
• Catholicism
• Politics
• Middle Ages
• Ethics
• Christianity
• Science
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 juin 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268084608
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

A D e f e n s eo f D i g n i t y

N O T R E D A M E S T U D I E S I N M E D I C A L E T H I C S

O. Carter Snead, series editor

Te purpose of te Notre Dame Studies in Medical Etics series, sponsored by te Notre Dame Center for Etics and Culture, is to publis works tat specifically address contemporary issues in te field of medicine. Te aim is to foster a systematic and rational discussion of medical etical problems grounded in Catolic intellectual tradition and moral vision.

A Defense of  Dignity  Creating Life,  a D nd Protecting te Rigts of Conscience  Destroying Life,

                

University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana

Copyright © 2013 by University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 www.undpress.nd.edu

All Rights Reserved

Manufactured in the United States of America

9780268084608 (ebook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013938012 ∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources

Dedicated to Elizabet,

Wo Made My Life Ric

One Two Tree Four

Contents

Acknowledgments

ix

Introduction 1 Are All Species Equal in Dignity? 17 Equal Dignity and Equal Access to Fertility Treatments 27 Procreative Beneficence 37

Five Embryo Adoption and Artificial Wombs 47 Six The Ethics of Ectopic Pregnancy 69 SevenEthics of Fetal Surgery  The 87 Eigt97Violinist Argument Revisited  The Nine Faith, Reason, and PhysicianAssisted Suicide 107 Ten PVS Patients and Pope John Paul II 125 ElevenDonation after Cardiac Death  Organ 133 TwelveProtection and the Incompatibility Thesis  Conscience 153 Tirteen Conscientious Objection and Health Care 165

Notes Bibliography Index

181 201 217

Acknowledgments

Though each has been revised, the collected essays that consti tute this book first appeared elsewhere. I am grateful to the respective publishers for their permission to make use of this material: “The Ethics of Ectopic Pregnancy: A Critical Reconsideration of Salpingostomy and Methotrexate,” Linacre Quarterly2009): 265–82; “Embryo (August Adoption and the Artificial Uterus,” inTe Etics of Embryo Adoption and te Catolic Tradition, ed. SarahVaughan Brakman (London: Springer, August 2007), 313–28, with kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media B.V; and “Organ Donations After Cardiac Death,”Te Etics of Organ Donation, ed. Steve Jensen (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2011), 95–113. Several of the essays appeared online atPublic Discourse: Etics, Law, and te Common Good,the online journal of the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, NJ: “The Importance of Dignity: A Reply to Steven Pinker,” http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/01/4540/; “Let’s Talk about Abortion: A Response to Dennis O’Brien,” http://www.thepublic discourse.com/2011/09/3998/;“EqualRightsforAll,BornandUnborn,” http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/04/2310/; and “Abortion, Conscience, and Doctors,” http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/10/ 1922/. I am also grateful for the permission to use “Faith, Reason, and PhysicianAssistedSuicide,”Cristian Bioetics4.2 (1998): 183–201; and “Conscientious Objection and Health Care: A Reply to Bernard Dick ens,”Cristian Bioetics18.1 (2012): 59–71.

ix