Table Of ContentBioethics Yearbook
VOLUME 1
THEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN BIOEnncs:
1988-1990
Bioethics Yearbook
VOLUME 1
Bioethics Yearbook
VOLUME 1
THEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN BIOETHICS:
1988-1990
THE CENTER FOR ETHICS, MEDICINE AND PUBUC ISSUES
Baylor College ofM edicine
The Institute ofR eligion
Rice University
Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
Editedby
Baruch A. Brody, Director
B. Andrew Lustig, Senior Editor for this Volume
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr.
Laurence B. McCullough
Thomas J. Bole, m, Managing Editor
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
ISBN 978-94-010-5399-0 ISBN 978-94-011-3172-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-3172-8
ISSN 0926-261X
Prinled on acid-free paper
AII Righls Reserved
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1991
Softcovcr rcpri nt of thc hardcovcr Ist cdition 1991
No pan of lhe material protected by Ihis copyright nalice may be reproduced or
utilized in any fonn or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, mording or by any infonnation storage and
retrieval syslem, withoul wriuen pennission from the copyright owner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
STAFF OF CENTER
Introduction 1
J. ROBERT NELSON
Foreword to Volume 1 3
JOSEPH BOYLE
The Roman Catholic Tradition and Bioethics 5
COURTNEYS.CAMPBELL
Sounds of Silence: The Latter-Day Saints and Medical Ethics 23
PRAKASH N. DESAI
Hinduism and Bioethics in India: A Tradition in Transition 41
MASAO FUJII
Buddhism and Bioethics 61
JUDITH A. GRANBOIS and DAVID H. SMITH
The Anglican Communion and Bioethics 69
STANLEY SAMUEL HARAKAS
Eastern Orthodox Bioethics 85
HASSAN HATHOUT
Islamic Concepts and Bioethics 103
PAUL NELSON
Bioethics in the Lutheran Tradition 119
ROBERT L. SHELTON
Recent Developments in Medical
Ethics in the Methodist Tradition 145
PAUL D. SIMMONS
Baptist-Evangelical Biomedical Ethics 161
A VRAHAM STEINBERG
Jewish Medical Ethics 179
KENNETH L. VAUX
Biomedical Ethics in the Reformed Tradition 201
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 215
GENERAL INDEX 217
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND DOCUMENTS DISCUSSED 221
INTRODucnON
It is with pleasure and pride that the Center for Ethics, Medicine, and Public
Issues offers this initial volume in our series of Bioethics Yearbooks. In
conjunction with Kluwer Publishers, we plan a yearbook series which will
alternate between a biannual volume tracing recent theological discussion in
bioethics and a biannual volume tracing recent governmental bioethlcs policies.
Each yearbook will draw upon the acknowledged expertise of respected
commentators, who will chronicle, as well as interpret, recent concerns in
bioethics in their specific areas of competence.
In this inaugural volume, we have invited twelve scholars to summarize
bioethical discussions in twelve religious traditions from 1988-1990 on the
following list of topics: new reproductive technologies, abortion, maternal-fetal
conflicts, care of severely disabled newborns, consent to treatment and
experimentation, confidentiality, equitable access to health care, ethical
concerns raised by cost-containment measures, decisions to withhold or
withdraw life-sustaining treatment, active euthanasia, the definition of death,
and organ donation and transplantation. Each author addressed only those
issues which have been recently discussed in his or her tradition. Authors were
also free to comment upon other issues not on the list.
The present yearbook is an effort to meet the need for a single volume that
provides comprehensive and timely summaries of discussions in a wide variety
of religious traditions on specific topics in bioethics. We have commissioned
expert commentators to trace recent trends and developments in their
respective traditions - both formal statements by official bodies and study
groups, and less formal discussions that reflect currents of thought in the
ongoing dialogue on these issues. Especially for this frrst volume in the
yearbook series, we have left it to the discretion of our authors to place recent
developments in a broader context by including those background documents
and discussions they deem necessary to clarify recent concerns.
In addition to providing up-to-date summaries of recent developments, our
authors have also offered rich and useful bibliographical references to a wide
array of documents, many of which would otherwise prove difficult for
individuals to know about, much less to assemble. We invite our readers to
contact us with their advice about ways to improve and expand the range of
theological resources upon which our authors may draw in future yearbooks.
As is always the case with a volume of this kind, the overall quality of the
yearbook depends primarily on the quality of the individual efforts of its
contributors. The scholarship of our authors will be evident. But in less obvious
ways, the professional courtesy and responsibility of our authors, evidenced by
their unanimous cooperation in meeting all deadlines, made the editorial
oversight of this volume uncharacteristically easy. Finally, we owe special thanks
to Thomas J. Bole, III, for his work as managing editor, to Sarah Vaughan
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Brakman, for her welcome help with the final editing chores, and to Delores
D. Smith, for her exacting attention to the countless details that go into
producing a complex volume such as this.
B. Andrew Lusti& Senior Editor
Baruch A. Brody, Editor, Director of the Center
H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Editor
Laurence B. McCullough, Editor
FOREWORD TO VOLUME I
No one needs to argue for the legitimacy and value of a book on bioethics
which incorporates diverse religious perspectives. The very field of study called
bioethics grew out of religiously motivated concerns less than thirty years ago.
Prior to the 196Os, Protestant theologians had given hardly a serious thought
to questions of medical ethics, although the Roman Catholic writer Gerald
Kelly had already systemized the teaching derived from a tradition in his
communion. The Jewish and Islamic traditions of morality in cases of
childbirth, sickness, and dying likewise had a long history.
The sudden advent of technological devices and sophisticated methods in
both biological research and medical practice alerted certain theologians to the
opening of unprecedented problems for moral counsel and decision-making.
Transplanting human organs, prenatal testing of the unborn, securing informed
consent of subjects of experimentation, and opening the secrets of the DNA
molecule were among the rapid developments which stimulated interest. The
Methodist Paul Ramsey and the Episcopalian Joseph Fletcher, though driven
by very different theological perceptions and convictions, became dominant,
much-quoted leaders in the new discipline. Daniel Ca11ahan, at that time a
noted Catholic lay theologian, and Richard A. McCormick, S. J., widened the
ecumenical dimensions of the field. Some of the best writing was done by them
and found in religious journals.
As more and more philosophical, legal, and sociological implications of
modem medicine and biotechnology became evident, the influence of writers
who claimed no religious faith became ascendant. Some persons of specific
religious identity who entered the field were apparently so impressed by the
rise of secular rules of logic and ethical discrimination that they virtually
concealed their beliefs in divinely willed and traditionally taught criteria of
judgment.
Religious thinkers do not function individualistically. They belong to certain
communities of faith and are inevitably participants in communal efforts to
articulate and make public their ethical positions on specific problems. Various
religious communities have thus been shaping and refining their particular
teachings on bioethical issues. Some of these are expressed in canonical
instructions to their constituents; others are hortatory, or intended only to serve
as favored guidelines for individuals.
Since bioethics has become a sphere of interest to large numbers of people,
it is urgently important to make these religious teachings accessible to a
widening public. Documentation is often hard to find. Statements are buried
in the minutes and resolutions of church assemblies and synods, or available
only in small, fugitive brochures. Some gain so little currency that they remain
almost clandestine. Yet there are many people who are eager to read them.
The present book serves not only to provide information about the various
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