A Defense of Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life, and Protecting the Rights of Conscience

233 Pages·2013·0.818 MB·English

by  Christopher Kaczor

A Defense Dignity
of
D
Creating Life,
Destroying Life,
and Protecting the Rights of Conscience
christopher kaczor
A Defense of Dignity
Notre DAme StuDieS iN meDicAl ethicS
O. Carter Snead, series editor
The purpose of the Notre Dame Studies in Medical Ethics series, sponsored
by the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture, is to publish works that
specifically address contemporary issues in the field of medicine. The aim is
to foster a systematic and rational discussion of medical ethical problems
grounded in Catholic intellectual tradition and moral vision.
A Defense Dignity
of
D
Creating Life,
Destroying Life,
and Protecting the Rights of Conscience
christopher kaczor
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2013 by University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
www.undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
978-0-268-08460-8 (e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013938012

∞ The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee
on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources
Dedicated to Elizabeth,
Who Made My Life Rich

contents
Acknowledgments ix
One introduction 1
Two Are All Species equal in Dignity? 17
Three equal Dignity and equal Access to Fertility treatments 27
Four Procreative Beneficence 37
Five embryo Adoption and Artificial Wombs 47
Six the ethics of ectopic Pregnancy 69
Seven the ethics of Fetal Surgery 87
Eight the Violinist Argument revisited 97
Nine Faith, reason, and Physician-Assisted Suicide 107
Ten PVS Patients and Pope John Paul ii 125
Eleven organ Donation after cardiac Death 133
Twelve conscience Protection and the incompatibility thesis 153
Thirteen conscientious objection and health care 165
Notes 181
Bibliography 201
index 217

Acknowledgments
though each has been revised, the collected essays that consti-
tute this book first appeared elsewhere. i am grateful to the respective
publishers for their permission to make use of this material: “the ethics
of ectopic Pregnancy: A critical reconsideration of Salpingostomy and
methotrexate,” Linacre Quarterly (August 2009): 265–82; “embryo
Adoption and the Artificial uterus,” in The Ethics of Embryo Adoption and
the Catholic Tradition, ed. Sarah-Vaughan Brakman (london: Springer,
August 2007), 313–28, with kind permission of Springer Science and
Business media B.V; and “organ Donations After cardiac Death,” The
Ethics of Organ Donation, ed. Steve Jensen (Washington, Dc: catholic
university of America Press, 2011), 95–113.
Several of the essays appeared online at Public Discourse: Ethics, Law,
and the Common Good, the online journal of the Witherspoon institute of
Princeton, NJ: “the importance of Dignity: A reply to Steven Pinker,”
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/01/4540/; “let’s talk about
Abortion: A response to Dennis o’Brien,” http://www.thepublic
discourse.com/2011/09/3998/; “equal rights for All, Born and unborn,”
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/04/2310/; and “Abortion,
con science, and Doctors,” http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2010/10/
1922/.
i am also grateful for the permission to use “Faith, reason, and
Physician-Assisted Suicide,” Christian Bioethics 4.2 (1998): 183–201; and
“conscientious objection and health care: A reply to Bernard Dick-
ens,” Christian Bioethics 18.1 (2012): 59–71.
ix