American medicine is not well. Though it remains the most widely respected of professions, though it has never been more competent technically, it is in trouble, both from without
In an article adapted from his debate last week with Peter Singer and Maggie Little on the moral status of the “fetus,” Professor Finnis explains that outside of medical contexts u
In our postmodern, secular, and liberal society, many individuals are struggling with a crisis of meaningful desire. In response, the goal of preaching Catholic bioethics should be
The relation between bioethics and moral theory is a complicated one. To start, we have philosophers as major contributors to the field of bioethics, and to many philosophers, thei
Bioethics, as it has emerged from its beginnings in the 1960s and 1970s, has become a complex and highly interdisciplinary field involving multiple disciplines.
While bioethics, a part of applied ethics, is usually identified with medical ethics, in its broadest sense it is the study of the moral, social and political problems that arise
When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). In truth, he is referring to that "new" and "
The dignity of a person must be recognized in every human being from conception to natural death. This fundamental principle expresses a great “yes” to human life and must be at th
This relates to a broad range of issues concerning the creation, manipulation and ending of human life. In earlier times it was more common to speak of medical ethics because conception, health and death were seen in medicalised terms, but because of a) the wish to avoid the presumption of medicalisation, b) the fact that medical ethics itself is now located in the broader category of health-care ethics, and c) the development of reproductive and other biological technologies, bioethics is seen as an area of study of its own, though issues overlap with these other fields. There tend to be two ways of approaching bioethical issues: from the perspective of general ethical theories, and from the consideration of cases. For example, it might be asked whether it would be justifiable to provide a genetic therapy to alleviate or rectify a genetic condition, or asked what the relative importance of welfare is in relation to rights.