CHALLENGES IN BIOETHICS
A Christian Vision
Keywords:
abortion, artificial insemination, capital punishment, human dignity, infertilityAbstract
Christianity has solid ethical vision centred on the core Christian values and founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ. The focus of this paper is to discuss contemporary bioethical challenges focussing on capital punishment and the use of reproductive technologies. Christianity is always against any direct and intentional violation of human life. Even though capital punishment had been considered as an indirect violation of life in the past, in the modern circumstances, it cannot be morally justified. Similarly, even though Christianity is highly concerned about the difficulties of the infertile couples, the use of in vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood cannot be morally justified as these procedures involve the destruction of many human lives and high risks to human life at its early highly vulnerable stages. However, Christianity admits that there are some situations when humans are compelled to accept and respect certain limitations to protect human life.
References
Germain Grisez, Living a Christian Life, Illinois: Franciscan Press, 1993, 466.
B. M. Ashley and K. V. O’Rourke, Health Care Ethics: A Theological Analysis, Washington D.C.: George Town University Press, 1997, 243.
Lucose Chamakala, The Sanctity of Life vs. The Quality of Life, Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2005, 66.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, ed. Black Friars, Oxford: Blackfriars, 1963-1976, II-II, q. 64, a. 5, 6.
Germain Grisez, Abortion: The Myths, the Realities, and the Arguments, New York: Corpus Books, 1972, 336. See Lucose Chamakala, “John Paul II: The Promoter of Life,” Indian Journal of Family Studies 4, 1 (2006), 46.
BBC Ethics Guide, “Arguments against Capital Punishment,” http://www.bbc. co.uk/ethics/capitalpunishment/against_1.shtml
Richard McCormick, “Ambiguity in Moral Choice” in Richard McCormick and Paul Ramsey, eds., Doing Evil to Achieve Good, Illinois: Loyola University Press, 1978, 43-45
John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1995, 55.
M. Tighe, “A Pandora’s Box of Social and Moral Problems” in H. Kuhse and P. Singer, eds., Bioethics: An Anthology, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001, 91.
John Paul II, “Celebrate Life,” The Pope Speaks 24, 4 (1979), 372.
Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, “Donum Vitae” in C. E. Curran and R. E. McCormick, eds., Readings in Moral Theology, No. 8, New York: Paulist Press, 1993, 6.
N. Tonti-Filippini, “The Catholic Church and Reproductive Technology,” 94. See Lucose Chamakala, “Assisted Reproductive Technologies: A Catholic Perspective” in Baiju Julian and Hormis Mynatty, eds., Catholic Contributions to Bioethics: Reflections on Evangelium Vitae, Bangalore: Asian Trading Corporation, 2007, 256.
S. Callahan, “The Ethical Challenge of the New Reproductive Technology” in S. E. Lammers and A. Verhey, eds., On Moral Medicine, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1988, 516.
