Contemporary Controversies in Catholic Bioethics

Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D. is the Semler Endowed Chair for Medical Ethics in the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Professor of Philosophy at Marian University in Indianapolis. He is also an affiliate faculty member of the Indiana University Center for Bioethics and the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics at IU Health. His research interests include the philosophy of human nature and its application to issues at the margins of life; ethical issues related to end-of-life care, genetics, and healthcare allocation; and the philosophical thought of Thomas Aquinas. He is the author of Thomistic Principles and Bioethics (Routledge 2006) and The Routledge Guidebook to Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae (Routledge 2015), and has published articles in The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, The Linacre Quarterly, Review of Metaphysics, International Philosophical Quarterly, The Modern Schoolman, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, American Journal of Bioethics, and Bioethics.

• Contributors.- Introduction; Jason T. Eberl.- Part I Moral Status of Human Embryos and Fetuses.- Introduction.- The Ontological Status of Pre-implantation Embryos; John R. Meyer.- The Potential of Potentiality Arguments; David Hershenov and Rose Hershenov.- The Moral Status of Anencephalic Homo sapiens; Charles C. Camosy.- Anencephaly and Human Dignity in the Clinical Context: Re-Conceptualizing Viability and Proportionate Reasoning; John Paul Slosar, Mark Repenshek, Elliott Louis Bedford and Emily Trancik.- Part II Issues with Certain Lifesaving Interventions.- Introduction.- Saving the Savable Mother: Why the Physician is Not Culpable of (Morally) Directly Killing; William F. Murphy, Jr. and Martin Rhonheimer.- Moral Methodology in Maternal-Fetal Conflicts; Benedict M. Guevin, O.S.B.- Is It Ethically Permissible to Separate Conjoined Twins? Murder, Mutilation, and Consent; Christopher Kaczor.- Vital Conflicts, Bodily Respect, and Conjoined Twins: Are We Asking the Right Questions?; Helen Watt.- Embryo Adoption Before and After Dignitas personae: Defending an Argument of Limited Permissibility; Sarah-Vaughan Brakman and Darlene Fozard Weaver.- Establishing the Moral Object of Heterologous and Homologous Embryo Transfe; Catherine Althaus.- Part III Contraception.- Introduction.- Moral Certitude in the Use of Levonorgestrel for the Treatment of Sexual Assault Survivors; Peter J. Cataldo.- Evaluation of the Mechanism of Action of Anti-Fertility Treatment in Cases of Sexual Assault: Moral Certitude and Human Acts; Thomas J. Davis, Jr.- Use of a Condom to Prevent HIV among Married Couples; Christopher Tollefsen.- The Disease-Preventative Use of Condoms:Why it is not Forbidden According to Catholic Doctrine; William F. Murphy, Jr.- Part IV Genethics.- Introduction.- Openness, with Caution and Suspicion, about Human Enhancement; James F. Keenan, S.J.- Philosophical Anthropology, Ethics, and Human Enhancement; Jason T. Eberl.- The Moral Status of Human Embryos and Other Possible Sources of Stem Cells; Lawrence Masek.- The Ethical Problems of Altered Nuclear Transfer and Human-Animal Chimeras: We Can Find a Better Way; John F. Morris.- Part V Issues at the End of Human Life.- Introduction.- Catholic Controversy over the Rationale for the Determination of Death by Neurological Criteria; David Albert Jones.- Defining Death with Aristotle and Aquinas; Kevin L. Flannery, S.J.- On the Provision of Medical Nutrition and Hydration; Jānis (John) T. Ozoliņš.- A Catholic Approach to Withholding Medically Provided Food and Water; Joseph Boyle†.- Part VI Organ Donation.- Introduction.- Is Presumed Consent a Morally Permissible Policy for Organ Donation?; James Delaney.- A Catholic Moral Analysis of Legislative Defaults in Organ Donation; Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P.- Cardiac Death, Reversibility, and Evidence for Death; Stephen Napier.- A Catholic Perspective on Organ Donation after Cardiac Death; Peter A. Clark, S.J.- Part VII Healthcare Law and Policy.- Introduction.- Complicity of Catholic Healthcare Institutions with Immoral Laws; Gerard Magill.- Catholic Institutions within a Democratic Polity: A Potential Procrustean Bed; Margaret Monahan Hogan.- Bioethics and Catholic Politicians: Who Is a Person?; Michael A. Fragoso and O. Carter Snead.- Addressing Unjust Laws without Complicity: Selective Bans versus Regulation; Helen Watt.- Conflicts of Conscience for Catholic Healthcare Professionals; Mark S. Latkovic.- Conscientious Objection for Catholic Healthcare Professionals; Thomas A. Cavanaugh.- Index.

“The articles in this book make this a valuable resource for scholars in bioethics, theology, and philosophy, as well as for clinical bioethicists working in Catholic healthcare. Furthermore, this book will be helpful to students wishing to explore current Catholic bioethics debates. … This is a much‐needed contribution to Catholic bioethics literature. The expansive exploration of controversial topics in Catholic bioethics by prominent Catholic scholars makes this a book that Catholic bioethicists should have on their shelves.” (Jacob R. Harrison, Doody's Book Reviews, April, 2018)