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The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly

Volume 10, Issue 2, Summer 2010
Responses to Dignitas personae - Part II of II

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1. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Colloquy
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2. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Edward J. Furton, M.A., Ph.D. In This Issue
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3. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
William L. Saunders Jr. Washington Insider
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essays
4. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
John B. Shea, M.D. Only a Cell
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It is important to know as precisely as possible when a human being comes into existence. This can occur in ordinary circumstances after sexual intercourse. It can also occur in a nonsexual manner by various types of cloning and genetic engineering techniques and in naturally occurring monozygotic identical twining in vivo. Many scientists and physicians, in an effort to avoid being accused of abuse of human embryos in their research and in the practice of abortion, have falsified the facts about human conception for many years throughout the world, creating moral confusion and error. This essay is meant to clarify this situation. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.2 (Summer 2010): 251–256.
5. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Lawrence Masek On Some Proposals for Producing Human Stem Cells
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The author argues that an action is morally wrong if any of its steps serves no purpose apart from preventing the existence of a human being. This principle entails that contraception and some proposed techniques for altered nuclear transfer are morally wrong, but it does not preclude producing stem cells through parthenogenesis. His argument depends on the premise that human life always is a good, including human life produced through immoral actions. The immoral action, not the life caused by the action, is the evil that should be prevented. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.2 (Summer 2010): 257–264.
6. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco Using Morally Controversial Human Cell Lines after Dignitas personae
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Human cell lines are well-characterized laboratory cultures of human cells derived from a single source. In recent years, much moral controversy has surrounded human cell lines and biological materials obtained from aborted fetuses and destructive human embryo research. Dignitas personae instructs scientists of good conscience to avoid using biological materials of illicit origin, to distance themselves from evil, and to avoid scandal. The author suggests that the Instruction allows a scientist to delay discontinuing the use of a morally controversial cell line for a reasonable amount of time and allows a citizen of conscience to financially support—in a limited and restricted manner governed by prudence—philanthropic organizations that fund controversial biomedical research programs. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.2 (Summer 2010): 265–272.
7. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Alvin Wong, M.D. Dignitas personae and Cell Line Independence
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The recent Instruction Dignitas personae from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith formally addresses the issue of the use of biological material of illicit origin. We now face the challenge of applying the principles it sets forth to daily realities. While the issue of vaccines that use such illicit cell lines has been addressed, other scenarios involving the everyday scientist or researcher in the laboratory or clinic will have to be confronted. It is a critical time for the cell line issue, and much work is needed by the scientific community to find ethical solutions. This article hopes to encourage positive steps in that direction. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.2 (Summer 2010): 273–280.
articles
8. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Mark S. Latkovic The Dignity of the Person: An Overview and Commentary on Dignitas personae
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This article provides a detailed overview and critical commentary on the Instruction Dignitas personae from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a document that updates Donum vitae. First, it situates the Instruction in the context of modern society’s reliance on biotechnology to overcome infertility, while also examining technology’s wider impact on human persons—for example, on their relationship with God. It then examines the teaching of the document while at the same time offering critical comments on it, pointing out both strengths and weaknesses in, for example, its treatment of the issue of human embryo adoption. It concludes with some general comments on how the Instruction will influence Catholic bioethics in both theory and practice. Throughout the article, it is often noted how Dignitas personae compares with its predecessor, Donum vitae. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.2 (Summer 2010): 283–305.
9. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
John S. Grabowski, Christopher Gross Dignitas personae and the Adoption of Frozen Embryos: A New Chill Factor?
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The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith’s Dignitas personae does not offer a definitive rejection of the practice of human embryo adoption as intrinsically evil, but neither does it simply leave the matter an “open question.” The document does indeed oppose the practice, but its reasons for doing so are not clearly stated and seem to be in tension with its own affirmations of the personal dignity of embryos and the goodness of adoption. The Congregation’s opposition is therefore best read as a prudential judgment that embryo adoption cannot be justified in the present circumstances due to the potential for scandal and the cooperation with the fertility industry which it involves. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.2 (Summer 2010): 307–328.
10. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Edward J. Furton Embryo Adoption Reconsidered
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The question of embryo adoption remains unresolved. Dignitas personae expresses reservations about the practice, but does not reject it. A proper interpretation of Dignitas personae n. 19 shows that the Vatican does not hold that human embryo adoption is intrinsically immoral, but that the question of its morality depends on the circumstances that surround the practice. Embryo adoption as practiced today is often compromised by illicit cooperation with objectionable reproductive technologies; nonetheless, it is possible to identify a best case scenario which may lessen or even eliminate these concerns. That best case is when a Catholic couple, who have not previously utilized in vitro fertilization to overcome a problem of infertility, adopt an abandoned embryo and choose to raise that child as their own. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 10.2 (Summer 2010): 329–347.
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11. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Testimony on a Transgender Rights Bill
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notes & abstracts
12. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco Science
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13. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Journals in Science
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14. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
John M. Travaline, M.D., F.A.C.P. Medicine
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15. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Journals in Medicine
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16. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Christopher Kaczor, Ph.D. Philosophy and Theology
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17. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Journals in Philosophy and Theology
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review essay
18. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
William E. May Bioethics: A Primer for Christians Second edition by Gilbert Meilaender
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19. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 10 > Issue: 2
Books Received
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