Roman Catholic bioethics

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511545566.064

55 - Roman Catholic bioethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 October 2009

Hazel J. Markwell and

Barry F. Brown

Edited by

Peter A. Singer and

A. M. Viens

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Hazel J. Markwell: Affiliation:
Bioethicist and Director University of Toronto Canada
Barry F. Brown: Affiliation:
Professor Emeritus Department of Philosophy University of Toronto, Canada
Peter A. Singer: Affiliation:
University of Toronto
A. M. Viens: Affiliation:
University of Oxford

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Summary

Mrs. I is 25 years old and is about 10 weeks' pregnant. She has tuberculous meningitis. Her disease was in an advanced stage when she was admitted to hospital and underwent surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain. She is now clinically brain dead. Her husband – like the patient, a devout Catholic – requests that her body be maintained on life support in the intensive care unit to save her fetus. Other family members concur that she is “pro-life” and would want to carry the fetus to term if possible. (Although far from typical, this is an actual case. All of the details included in this discussion are taken from the public record [Fox 1999; Priest and Slaughter 1999]).

What is Catholic bioethics?

There is a long tradition of bioethical reasoning within the Roman Catholic faith, a tradition that extends from Augustine's writings on suicide in the early Middle Ages to recent papal teachings on euthanasia and reproductive technologies. Roman Catholic bioethics (which we refer to in this article simply as Catholic bioethics) comprises a complex set of positions that have their origins in scripture, the writings of the doctors of the Church, papal encyclicals, and reflections by contemporary Catholic theologians and philosophers. Informed by scriptural exegesis and by philosophical argument, Catholic bioethics is rooted in both faith and in reason.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Textbook of Bioethics , pp. 436 - 442

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511545566.064 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2008

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