John Paul Ii's Contribution to Catholic Bioethics
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JOHN PAUL II’S CONTRIBUTION TO CATHOLIC BIOETHICS Philosophy and Medicine Volume 84 Founding Co-Editor Stuart F. Spicker Editor H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Department of Philosophy, Rice University, and Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, U.S.A. Associate Editor Kevin Wm. Wildes, S.J., Loyola University, New Orleans, U.S.A. ___________________________________________________________________________ CATHOLIC STUDIES IN BIOETHICS 3 ___________________________________________________________________________ Series Founding Co-Editors John Collins Harvey, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Francesc Abel, Institut Borja de Bioetica, Centre Borja, Barcelona, Spain Series Editor Christopher Tollefsen, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, U.S.A. Editorial Advisory Board Joseph Boyle, St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Canada Thomas Cavanaugh, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A. Mark Cherry, St. Edward’s University, Austin, TX, U.S.A. Ana Smith Iltis, St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A. JOHN PAUL II’S CONTRIBUTION TO CATHOLIC BIOETHICS Edited by CHRISTOPHER TOLLEFSEN University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, U.S.A. A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 1-4020-3129-7 (HB) ISBN 1-4020-3130-0 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Sold and distributed in North, Central and South America by Springer, 101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Springer, P.O. Box 322, 3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Printed on acid-free paper springeronline.com All Rights Reserved © 2004 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed in the Netherlands. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHRISTOPHER TOLLEFSEN, Introduction: John Paul II’s Contribution to Catholic Bioethics ...................................................................................... 1 LUKE GORMALLY, Pope John Paul II’s Teaching on Human Dignity and its Implications for Bioethics ......................................................................... 7 WILLIAM E. MAY, John Paul II’s Encyclical Veritatis Splendor and Bioethics....................................................................................................... 35 GAVIN T. COLVERT, Liberty and Responsibility: John Paul II, Ethics, and the Law .................................................................................................. 51 MARK J. CHERRY, Bioethics in the Ruins of Christendom: Why John Paul II’s Diagnosis Requires a More Radical Cure Than May and Colvert Provide……………………………………..............................…… 73 LAURA L. GARCIA, Protecting Persons ........................................................ 93 PATRICK LEE, The Human Body and Sexuality in the Teaching of Pope John Paul II ................................................................................... 107 MICHAEL J. MURRAY, Protestants, Natural Law, and Reproductive Ethics ................................................................................... 121 ANDREW LUSTIG, John Paul II on the Good of Life .................................. 131 JOHN F. CROSBY, Karol Wojtyla on Treating Patients as Persons............. 151 JOEL JAMES SHUMAN, John Paul II and the Goods of the Body (of Christ) ......................................................................................... 169 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ......................................................................... 181 INDEX ......................................................................................................... 183 CHAPTER ONE CHRISTOPHER TOLLEFSEN INTRODUCTION: JOHN PAUL II’S CONTRIBUTION TO CATHOLIC BIOETHICS 1. POPE JOHN PAUL II AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTY- FIRST CENTURY Any list of the most influential figures of the second half of the twentieth century would arguably have to begin with the name of Pope John Paul II. From 1978, when he was inaugurated, to the present, over a quarter of a century later, the Pope has been a dominant force in the world, both within the Catholic and Christian Church, and in the larger international community. In the former, the Pope has spearheaded a spiritual revival of Catholicism in a Church frequently at odds with modernity, confused in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, and beset by internal divisions. The full fruits of this revival will, no doubt, not be fully known for many years; and at present they are sadly overshadowed by the recent sexual abuse crisis in the American Catholic Church. But few Catholics of the twenty-first century would fail to acknowledge the role that John Paul has played in defining for them what it means to be Catholic in this new age. The Pope’s influence has not rested within the boundaries of Catholicism, or even Christianity. Perhaps no Pope has been as committed to ecumenism, and to overcoming the divisions within Christianity that are an affront to Christ’s desire that “they may all be one.” Nor have previous Popes shown the remarkable sensitivity to Jews and Muslims that John Paul II has, in particular in his self- identification with the cause of atonement for the sins of Christians against their brothers and sisters of other faiths, and especially against the Jews, with whom the Pope clearly feels a deep kinship. And on the level of international politics and statesmanship, the Pope has played a significant role in the collapse of communism, especially within his native Poland, and has been a persistent voice raised for the poor and persecuted, and against the use of unreasonable violence in a troubled world. So great and so long is the list of John Paul’s accomplishments that no end of books could, and no doubt one day will be written about his role in the Church, and in the world, at the end of the second millennium. The purpose of this volume, however, is rather narrower than a full review of his various accomplishments. Among the many areas of theology, morality, and politics in which the Pope has 1 C. Tollefsen (Ed.), John Paul II’s Contribution to Catholic Bioethics, pp. 1–6. © 2004 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands. 2 CHRISTOPHER TOLLEFSEN made a considerable contribution, one of the most widely recognized is his often controversial and always provocative work in the field of bioethics, broadly construed. Indeed, even within the very name “bioethics” we see the root of one of the Pope’s greatest concerns, a concern for human life – bios – and for the necessary ethical respect for the dignity of every human person. This concern for the person is a constant theme throughout the Pope’s career, dating back to his days as priest and bishop Karol Wojtyla, and it is a concern at the root of much the Pope’s work on the international stage. But it is also at the root of his continuing interest in, and contribution to, debates and challenges within the more or less academic field of bioethics: the philosophical, legal, and theological discipline that addresses issues such as abortion, euthanasia, cloning, sexual ethics, and so on. This volume is intended as a tribute to that contribution, and an attempt to articulate and understand the nature of that contribution. 2. THEMES OF JOHN PAUL’S TEACHING IN BIOETHICS Rooted as it is in the historical teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church, John Paul’s work in the area of bioethics could not fail to articulate positions and values constantly held through the Church’s history. So it should come as no surprise to find that the Pope is a strong opponent of abortion, of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and of asexual reproductive techniques, nor that he, in line with more recent social teaching, supports just health-care provisions for the poor. But the Pope has made his own a number of core themes, which recur in his discussion of a variety of contested issues, in bioethics and beyond. It is this, in part, which has made the Pope’s such a distinctive voice in the field of bioethics. Foremost among the Pope’s recurring concerns is, as mentioned above, his emphasis on the essential and inviolable dignity of the human person. As Luke Gormally points out, in his contribution to this volume, John Paul’s understanding of human dignity is articulated in a threefold way: human dignity is connatural, existential, and definitive. Connatural dignity is that which we possess in virtue of our nature and destiny; existential dignity is that which we attain in acting uprightly; and definitive dignity is that which will come with heavenly glory. Leaving the third aside for the moment, we could perhaps summarize one major strand of the Pope’s teaching by saying that he has continually called on persons to achieve their existential dignity by respecting the connatural dignity of all other human beings. This theme of the human dignity of the person is ubiquitous in the Pope’s work; it is, in consequence, a theme returned to often by almost every single contributor to this volume. Luke Gormally provides, in fact, a magisterial treatment of the notion of the Pope’s thought, but its treatment is taken up again by William May, Gavin Colvert, Laura Garcia, Patrick Lee, Andrew Lustig and John