Transcript "Testing What is Consistent with Human Dignity in Modern Medicine

"Testing What is Consistent
with Human Dignity in
Modern Medicine: The
Standard of the Natural
Moral Law"
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INTRODUCTION

1. In two of his works, After Virtue and Whose
Justice? Which Rationality?, Alasdair MacIntyre
points out a central problem of the post modern
world and a problem that our conference on
human dignity in modern medicine must face: in
much moral discourse, the participants are using
incommensurable moral concepts; people are
using the same words, but these words, even those
related to such fundamental notions as person and
dignity, have different definitions.
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 2. The
different ways in which such
fundamental notions as "who is a human
being", "what are human rights", "who is a
person", and "who is God" are understood give
rise to different social-cultural communities
with their own lived moral traditions.
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 3.
MacIntyre analyzes a number of different
moral traditions but here will focus on two: the
dominant secular tradition of the post-modern
world of Europe, North America, Taiwan and
Hong Kong (grounded on the philosophies of
Nietzsche, existentialism, deconstructionism
and logical positivism) and that of the
Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
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
4. These two world views have fundamentally
different notions of the foundation of human
dignity: for the Magisterium of the Catholic
Church it is the human person as created image of
God with a mission of entering an eternal
relationship of love with the Triune God; for
secular, post modern philosophy it is the selfcreating, self-determining individual with a
mission to maximum self-development and selfexpression. HOW TO DETERMINE WHICH
VIEW IS RIGHT??
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 5.
Jacques Maritain, a modern FrenchCatholic philosopher, has analyzed carefully
what the natural moral law is and how it
comes to be known. In this analysis he
points out the natural moral law imposes an
historical test on all human culturalhistorical communities: the more such
communities' moral life is consistent with
natural moral law, the more they will
prosper; the more such communities depart
from the natural moral law the more they
will diminish and even ultimately disappear.
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 6.
Not all the values of the post-modern
world are incompatible with the Catholic
Magisterium; on the other hand, certain
values, and the practices that follow from
them, certainly are incompatible.
Unfortunately, many Catholic bio-ethicists
and medical ethicists have chosen the
values of post-modern secularism over the
Magisterium.
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
7. By applying Maritain's test to some concrete
medical pratices, we may derive greater
confidence in the way that the Magisterium
understands the meaning of human dignity and
how it applies. that understanding to current,
concrete problems of medical morality. We will
especially try to show the historical reality that as
post-modern cultures have accepted the medical
practices associated with reproductive rights and
sexual liberation, they have entered "the second
demographic transition": which is a clear proof of
a culture headed for death.
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Example
 Brazil's
Federal Council of Psychology (CFP)
has announced that it will prohibit
psychologists from helping the Catholic
Church to weed out candidates to the
priesthood who have homosexual tendencies.
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 CFP has
ruled that "psychologists cannot
evaluate people for this purpose, under penalty
of infringing the Code of Ethics and
Resolution 001/99 of the CFP, which
establishes norms of behavior for
psychologists in relation to the issue of sexual
orientation."
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 The
ruling, which can be legally enforced in
Brazil, could make it more difficult for
Catholic officials to apply new Vatican
guidelines for screening candidates for the
priesthood to remove those with "deep seated
homosexual tendencies."
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 The Vatican
announced the guidelines for
psychological testing last month in an attempt
to enforce its centuries-old policy, reiterated in
2005, of excluding those with deep seated
homosexual tendencies from the priesthood.
The 2005 pronouncement came in the wake of
the clergy sex abuse crisis, which mostly
involved priests molesting adolescent boys.
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Magisterium’s notion of human dignity
We start from the highest truth of faith: Trinitarian Love.
Who is human person: the person’s dignity, value, mission.
The human person is God’s image → dignity, value.
Forming an eternal relationship of love with God → The person’s mission.
Moral norms are consistent with person’s dignity, value and mission.
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Trinitarian Love
Marriage and
family life
Children more able to learn in loving
environment how to love God.
Increase love in family.
Conjugal act.
The particular act
through which trinity
and parents co-create
human person.
Human person
Increase unitive love
between spouses.
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 Three
absolute moral norms:
1. Absolutely forbidden to kill innocent
human being.
2. Sex outside marriage absolutely forbidden.
3. Separation of procreative and unitive
functions of conjugal act absolutely
forbidden.
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Moral truth — From St. Thomas to contemporary Magisterium
God’s objective moral truth
From
St. Thomas
Church’s faith
to contemporary
Human reason
Magisterium, revealed
truth and the truth of the
natural moral law should be consistent.
Revealed truth
Natural moral law
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Martin Luther
God’s objective moral truth
According to each Christian’s
Revealed truth
faith to recognize
Even if in objective theory, still some subjectivity is
included. Because it relies on personal interpretation
without common standard, for example Catholic
Magisterium and Tradition.
Reason
Corrupt, unreliable
Enlightenment
Reason
More and more emphasize function of reason.
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Empiricism
 1.
Concept comes from experience.
 2.
Deny human being has a priori concept.
 3.
Moral Standard is not reason, but emotional:
pain or happiness (experience, feeling,
utilitarianism).
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PERSON
PERSON
PERSON
PERSON
God
PERSON
PERSON
The Will To Power
1. Nietzsche claimed “the death of God”. Hence, everyone has to create
his own nature.
2. If God is not the creator, then the human being has neither a common
nature nor a common need.
3. The basis of morality is need.
4. Everyone creates his own values, has his own subjective morality.
People need to tolerate each other.
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Kant
Categorical
imperative is
moral criterion.
Logical positivism
Only that
which is
proven by
experiment
is true
knowledge.
If a conflict
between
science
and
emotion,
science
must be
chosen,
morality
must give
way.
Empiricism
Ethics is
Utilitarianism
based on
feeling,
therefore not
true
knowledge,
as it cannot
be proven by
experimentation.
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Deconstructionism
 1.
Deny the identity among human beings.
Emphasize each person is different and the
importance of these differences.
 2.
Morality has no objective standard.
Metaphysics and natural moral law don’t exist.
 3.
“Respect each person and tolerate other’s
differences” seems to become the one demand
of morality.
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Maritain’s Theory on How the Natural Law is Known
 Through
an analysis of history, we can
apply a text to determine whether a
culture understands and executes the
natural moral law.
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1. In the long term, justice and correct
value system will tend to protect
human society and lead to real success.
2. In the long term, injustice and evil will
tend to damage and destroy society and
will lead to complete failure.
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G o d ’s
Eternal
r e a s o n
Law
Revelation (Bible, Tradition)
Natural moral law（human reason’s
participation in the Eternal Law）
Human reason
Moral value of a human being’s free act.
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Integrated fullness of life
Person
Family
Society
Religion
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Fullness life
Ontological evil
No fullness of life or
inconsistent with
human nature
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A Contemporary Comparison in Human Life
Ethics: The Sexual Liberation Movement versus
the Roman Catholic Church
 Starting
assumptions:
1.What is permitted:
(1) The sexual liberation movement in general holds the
follows: as long as there is free consent and no one gets
hurts, any form of sexual expression is permitted. This
includes extra-marital and premarital sex, homosexual
sexual relations, masturbation, sado-masochism,
fetishisms, groups sex, pornography, and, for the most
ardent supporters, pedophila, polygamy and polyandry.
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(2) In opposition, the Catholic Church
forbids all of these as serious disordered
forms of sexual expression or of sex
within marriage relationship.
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2.What the law should be:
(1) For the sexual liberation movement, in order
to enjoy as complete sexual freedom as
possible, contraception, abortion and divorce
with remarriage must be legally permitted and
all laws prohibiting sexual acts (homosexuality
or pedophilia, etc.) must be repealed.
(2) Again, all these are forbidden by the
Catholic Church.
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
The prime example of a nation that has
adopted most of the ethics of sexual
liberation is Sweden. (Most of developed
nations of Western Europe and North
America, Taiwan, Hong Kong have gradually
followed Sweden’s lead.)
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1.
2.
3.
4.
From elementary school, students are taught
the theory of sexual liberation.
Over 90% teenagers have premarital sex
before they are 19 years old.
Over 50% Swedish children are born out side
of marriage.
The second demographic transition began
early in Sweden (rates ranging from 1.2 to
1.5 are the average in Europe).
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Second Demographic Transition
 1. Those
nations which have accepted
medical practices associated with
reproductive rights and sexual liberation
have entered what demographers term
"the second demographic transition:
meaning long-term situation of
reproductive rates below replacement
level (2.1 child per woman).
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According to United Nation total fertility rate
for the following countries:
Country
Fertility rate in
2008(birth/woman)
Hong Kong
1.00
Singapore
1.08
Taiwan
1.13
Japan
1.22
South Korea
1.29
Italy
1.30
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According to United Nation total fertility
rate for the following countries:
Country
Fertility rate in
2008(birth/woman)
Greece
1.36
Germany
1.41
European Union
1.50
Sweden
1.67
U.S.A
2.01
Philippines
3.00
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 3.
Characteristics of Cultures in Second
Demographic Transition (according to
demographers!):
a) Widespread promotion of effective
contraception backed up by legal abortion
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b) Separation of sex and marriage leading to a
general acceptance of pre-marital sex, cohabitation, delay of marriage, delay of having
children, increasing number of women who
never marry, increasing divorce.
c) Aging populations: Japan, Taiwan, all of
Western Europe, Canada, "secular-anglo" USA.
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 4.
No nation that has entered the second
demographic transition has come out of it;
even with generous government incentives to
have children.
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Comparison between Sweden and Philippines:
 In
1930 the population of Sweden was 6
million, that of the Philippines 13 million;
today the whole population of Sweden, 9
million, can fit into greater Manila, while the
young population of the Philippines tops
84,000,000.
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Comparison between Thailand and Philippines:
 A recent
study has shown that comparing
Thailand and the Philippines, while both
reported approximately the same number of
AIDS cases in the early 1980s, Thailand,
which has aggressively promoted condoms as
the solution to AIDS now has 700,000 citizens
infected with the HIV virus, while the number
of AIDS cases in the Philippines, which has
promoted abstinence and fidelity, has remained
in the thousands.
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Conclusion
???
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