Catholic Bioethics for a New Millennium

A groundbreaking contribution to bioethics bringing classical and contemporary wisdom to the dilemmas of life and love, health and healthcare.

Anthony Fisher (Author)

9781107009585, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 November 2011

346 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.63 kg

'… this is a fine work on a variety of questions in Catholic bioethics … Fisher is clearly an articulate evangelical witness for the 'gospel of life', and an intellectually formidable exponent of the Catholic tradition. This is an extraordinarily fine treatment of a John Paul ll approach to bioethics.' The Thomist

Can the Hippocratic and Judeo-Christian traditions be synthesized with contemporary thought about practical reason, virtue and community to provide real-life answers to the dilemmas of healthcare today? Bishop Anthony Fisher discusses conscience, relationships and law in relation to the modern-day controversies surrounding stem cell research, abortion, transplants, artificial feeding and euthanasia, using case studies to offer insight and illumination. What emerges is a reason-based bioethics for the twenty-first century; a bioethics that treats faith and reason with equal seriousness, that shows the relevance of ancient wisdom to the complexities of modern healthcare scenarios and that offers new suggestions for social policy and regulation. Philosophical argument is complemented by Catholic theology and analysis of social and biomedical trends, to make this an auspicious example of a new generation of Catholic bioethical writing which has relevance for people of all faiths and none.

Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction
Part I. How Are We to Do Bioethics?: Section 1. Context: Challenges and Resources of a New Millennium: 1. Sex and life in post-modernity
2. Catholic engagement with the culture of modernity
3. Promising developments
4. Conclusion
Section 2. Conscience: The Crisis of Authority: 5. The voice of conscience
6. The voice of the magisterium
7. Conscience in post-modernity
8. Where to from here?
Section 3. Cooperation: Should We Ever Collaborate with Wrongdoing?: 9. Traditional example
10. Five modern examples
11. Some fundamental issues raised by these examples
12. Why it matters so much
13. Conclusion
Part II. Beginning-of-Life: Section 4. Beginnings: When Do People Begin?: 14. Method, thesis and implications
15. A closer look at Ford's science
16. A closer look at Ford's philosophy
17. Individuality criteria
18. Conclusions
Section 5. Stem Cells: What's All the Fuss About?: 19. Scientific potential and concerns about stem cells
20. Ethical concerns about embryonic stem cells
21. Social concerns about embryonic stem cells
Section 6. Abortion - and the New Eugenics: 22. The perennial debate about abortion
23. Pre-natal screening: a search and destroy mission?
24. The new abortion debate
Part III. Later Life: Section 7. Transplants: Bodies, Relationships and Ethics: 25. Love beyond death
26. Conceptions of the body and relationships in organ transplantation
27. Fashionable bioethical approaches to organ procurement
28. Better bioethical approaches to organ procurement
29. Ethical issues in organ reception
30. Conclusion
Section 8. Artificial Nutrition: Why do Unresponsive Patients Matter?: 31. Civilisation after Schiavo?
32. Why the unresponsive still matter: a philosophical account
33. Why the unresponsive still matter: a theological account
34. Some final questions
Section 9. Endings: Suicide and Euthanasia in the Bible: 35. The problem of suicide and euthanasia in the Bible
36. Suicides and euthanasias in the Bible
37. The Scriptural basis of Judeo-Christian opposition to suicide and euthanasia
Part IV. Protecting Life: Section 10. Identity: What Role for a Catholic Hospital?: 38. A tale of two hospitals
39. Current challenges for Catholic hospitals
40. Catholic hospitals as diakonia
41. Catholic hospitals as martyria
42. Catholic hospitals as leitourgia
43. Conclusion: six tasks for a new century
Section 11. Regulation: What Kinds of Laws and Social Policies?: 44. A tale of three politicians
45. Catholic principles for politicians
46. Reasonable stances for a pro-life politician
47. Some virtues of a pro-life politician.

Subject Areas: Religious ethics [HRAM1], Philosophy of religion [HRAB]