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1. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Edward J. Furton, MA, PhD In This Issue
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2. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Colloquy
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3. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Richard M. Doerflinger Washington Insider
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essays
4. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Jay J. Bringman, MD, Robert B. Shabanowitz The Placenta as an Organ of the Fetus: A Response to the Consensus Statement on Maternal–Fetal Conflict
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The authors respond to a recent consensus statement on maternal–fetal vital conflicts. Sound ethical analysis must depend on accurate medical facts, but there appear to be inconsistencies in the medical analysis. The consensus statement says that the specific threat to the health of the mother immediately subsides following detachment of the placenta from the uterus. The authors refute this assertion, since death from peripartum cardiomyopathy may occur months to years following delivery of the neonate or following termination. The authors assert further that the placenta is an organ of the fetus and that any act on the placenta is a direct act on the fetus itself. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 15.1 (Spring 2015): 31–37.
5. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Rev. Benedict M. Guevin, OSB Deactivating Pacemakers at the End of Life
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The question of whether it is permissible to deactivate a pacemaker at the end of life has been addressed in medical journals but rarely in ethics journals. The ethics of pacemaker deactivation is especially challenging because of the disparate ways the devices are viewed by both medical professionals and patients. Some consider pacemakers replacement therapy, and some consider them substitutive therapy. If they are the former, then deactivation would not be permitted, since a replacement device is considered a part of the body, akin to a new heart. Some ask whether pacemakers are natural or artificial; if pacemakers are artificial, deactivation would be permissible. Another factor is whether a patient is pacemaker dependent. Some medical experts decide the issue of deactivation on the basis of patient autonomy. Others weigh in on whether pacemakers are ordinary or extraordinary means of care. This paper examines each proposal and concludes tentatively that pacemaker deactivation is not permissible at the end of life. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 15.1 (Spring 2015): 39–51.
6. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Peter J. Cataldo, Elliott Louis Bedford Prospective Medical-Moral Decision Making
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In recent articles, Daniel Gannon argues that, according to Catholic morality, morally good decision making about life-sustaining treatment is intrinsically based on in-the-moment circumstances. Measured against this moral criterion, Gannon finds physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST) to be morally unacceptable and proposes his own medical order form. The authors argue here that Catholic moral teaching and tradition do not reduce the role of circumstances to those in the present moment and that such a reductive criterion undermines many of the sources of morality, including conscience, prudence, and moral principles such as the principle of ethically proportionate and disproportionate means. The authors also show that Gannon’s criterion and form generate conceptual and practical contradictions, that POLST is not intrinsically evil, and that when properly implemented, POLST can be morally acceptable. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 15.1 (Spring 2015): 53–61.
7. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Emily K. Trancik Enhancement versus Therapy in Catholic Neuroethics
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This article explores the way the distinction between enhancement and therapy has been used in Catholic bioethics to assess the moral character of technologies that developments in genetics and neuroscience have made possible. The purpose of drawing lines between therapy and enhancement is typically to claim that the former is always ethically justified and the latter is morally suspect, if not altogether impermissible. The author connects the enhancement versus therapy distinction to concepts of human nature that ground it and examines the function of the distinction in these theological anthropologies. She argues that the distinction is insufficient for making decisions regarding use of neurotechnologies. Catholic ethicists thus need to explore alternative methods to begin the essential project of developing neuroethics. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 15.1 (Spring 2015): 63–72.
articles
8. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Timothy P. Collins, MD On the Morality of Risk-Reducing Surgery
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Possession of a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation puts a woman at very high risk of developing breast and ovarian carcinoma at an early age. One treatment option is surgical removal of the target organs—breasts, ovaries, and fallopian tubes—before the malignancy develops. This risk-reduction surgery has been shown to significantly reduce the likelihood that a woman will develop one of these cancers. This paper argues that such surgeries do not violate Catholic moral principles, but can be justified using the principles of double effect and totality and integrity. The paper does not recommend or endorse any specific treatment option. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 15.1 (Spring 2015): 75–89.
9. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Rev. Msgr. Robert J. Dempsey Condom Use by HIV-Discordant Married Couples: The Intention to Prevent the Transmission of Disease
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Since the 1980s Catholic moralists have discussed whether the use of condoms to prevent the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS is morally permissible. In 2004 Rev. Martin Rhonheimer argued that the use of condoms by HIV-discordant married couples, although not prudent or advisable, was nevertheless not intrinsically wrong. Many other Catholic moralists strongly disagreed with him. This paper analyzes both sides of the argument and concludes that the practice is not morally permissible even for an infertile married couple because the use of a non-perforated condom, by preventing male ejaculation into the vagina, deprives the act of its essential ordination to procreation. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 15.1 (Spring 2015): 91–105.
10. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Frank Sobiech Science, Ethos, and Transcendence in the Anatomy of Nicolaus Steno
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The anatomist Nicolaus Steno (1638–1686), a key figure of the Scientific Revolution and founder of modern geology, engaged in research on human procreation and proved for the first time that women have ovaries and not so-called female testicles. Steno took the view of “simultaneous animation” of the embryo and demythologized malformations of the embryo by appealing to original sin. His sexual ethics presages the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes (1965). Steno, who was later ordained a priest and consecrated a bishop, was a defender of human life and looked at the human body as an “interpreter” of divine love. He was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1988; his tomb is in the Basilica San Lorenzo in Florence. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 15.1 (Spring 2015): 107–126.
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11. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks “The Love That Brings New Life into the World”: The Institution of Marriage
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notes & abstracts
12. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Rev. Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco Science
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13. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Science Abstracts
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14. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Greg F. Burke, MD Medicine
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15. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Medicine Abstracts
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16. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Christopher Kaczor Philosophy and Theology
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17. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Philosophy and Theology Abstracts
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book reviews
18. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Brian Welter The Sacredness of Human Life: Why an Ancient Biblical Vision Is Key to the World’s Future by David P. Gushee
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19. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Giuseppe Butera The Ethics of Organ Transplantation edited by Steven J. Jensen
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20. The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly: Volume > 15 > Issue: 1
Christopher White A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience by Christopher Kaczor
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