Catholic Bioethics And Social Justice

Catholic health care is one of the key places where the church lives Catholic social teaching (CST). Yet the individualistic methodology of Catholic bioethics inherited from the manualist tradition has yet to incorporate this critical component of the Catholic moral tradition. Informed by the places where Catholic health care intersects with the diverse societal injustices embodied in the patients it encounters, this book brings the lens of CST to bear on Catholic health care, illuminating a new spectrum of ethical issues and practical recommendations from social determinants of health, immigration, diversity and disparities, behavioral health, gender-questioning patients, and environmental and global health issues.

Can the Hippocratic and Judeo-Christian traditions be synthesized with contemporary thought about practical reason, virtue and community to provide real-life answers to the dilemmas of healthcare today? Bishop Anthony Fisher discusses conscience, relationships and law in relation to the modern-day controversies surrounding stem cell research, abortion, transplants, artificial feeding and euthanasia, using case studies to offer insight and illumination. What emerges is a reason-based bioethics for the twenty-first century; a bioethics that treats faith and reason with equal seriousness, that shows the relevance of ancient wisdom to the complexities of modern healthcare scenarios and that offers new suggestions for social policy and regulation. Philosophical argument is complemented by Catholic theology and analysis of social and biomedical trends, to make this an auspicious example of a new generation of Catholic bioethical writing which has relevance for people of all faiths and none.

The canon for Catholic social teaching spreads to six hundred pages, yet fewer than two pages are devoted to Catholic social learning or pedagogy. In this long-needed book, Roger Bergman begins to correct that gross imbalance. He asks: How do we educate (lead out) the faith that does justice? How is commitment to social justice provoked and sustained over a lifetime? To address these questions, Bergman weaves what he has learned from thirty years as a faith-that-does-justice educator with the best of current scholarship and historical authorities. He reflects on personal experience; the experience of Church leaders, lay activists, and university students; and the few words the tradition itself has to say about a pedagogy for justice.Catholic Social Learning explores the foundations of this pedagogy, demonstrates its practical applications, and illuminates why and how it is fundamental to Catholic higher education. Part I identifies personal encounters with the poor and marginalized as key to stimulating a hunger and thirst for justice. Part II presents three applications of Catholic social learning: cross-cultural immersion as illustrated by Creighton University's Semestre Dominicano program; community-based service learning; and the teaching of moral exemplars such as Dorothy Day, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Archbishop Oscar Romero. Part III then elucidates how a pedagogy for justice applies to the traditional liberal educational mission of the Catholic university, and how it can be put into action.Catholic Social Learning is both a valuable, practical resource for Christian educators and an important step forward in the development of a transformative pedagogy.

Joseph M. Boyle Jr. has been a major contributor to the development of Catholic bioethics over the past thirty five years. Boyle’s contribution has had an impact on philosophers, theologians, and medical practitioners, and his work has in many ways come to be synonymous with analytically rigorous philosophical bioethics done in the Catholic intellectual tradition. Four main themes stand out as central to Boyle’s contribution: the sanctity of life and bioethics: Boyle has elaborated a view of the ethics of killing at odds with central tenets of the euthanasia mentality, double effect and bioethics: Boyle is among the pre-eminent defenders of a role for double effect in medical decision making and morality, the right to health care: Boyle has moved beyond the rhetoric of social justice to provide a natural law grounding for a political right to health care; and the role of natural law and the natural law tradition in bioethics: Boyle’s arguments have been grounded in a particularly fruitful approach to natural law ethics, the so-called New Natural Law theory. The contributors to BIOETHICS WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE: THEMES IN THE WORK OF JOSEPH M. BOYLE discuss, criticize, and in many cases extend the Boyle’s advances in these areas with rigor and sophistication. It will be of interest to Catholic and philosophical bioethicists alike.

Gathered for the Journey sets moral reasoning in a theological context of worship and discipleship (partá1), provides a framework for the moral life based on questions of human fulfillment (partá2), and demonstrates how these theological resources shape a distinctive approach to questions of globalization, Catholic social teaching, the family, war and peace, bioethics, and the environment (partá3). McCarthy and Lysaught have crafted a distinctively unified collection. Gathered for the Journeyrepresents a common project among Catholic scholars who are struggling with similar questions about living faithfully. Contributors: Frederick Christian Bauerschmidt William T. Cavanaugh David M. Cloutier Dana Dillon James M. Donohue Jeanne Heffernan Schindler Kelly S. Johnson M. Therese Lysaught William C. Mattison III David M. McCarthy Michael R. Miller Julie Hanlon Rubio Tobias Winright

Social justice is a concept which is widely touted and lauded as desirable, yet its meaning may differ depending on whether its focus is on the underlying values of social justice, the more specific objectives these entail, or the actual practices or policies which aim to achieve social justice. In the current global political context, we need to re-examine what we mean by social justice, and demonstrate that "making a difference" and contributing to human flourishing is more achievable than this context would suggest. The book aims to increase our sense of being able to enact social justice, by showcasing different ways of contributing to social justice, and "making a difference" in different settings and different ways. Part 1 introduces a fluid and contextual approach to social justice. Part 2 examines social justice and faith perspectives, such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam and community organisations. Part 3 illustrates perspectives on children, the family, sport and local government. Part IV provides perspectives of social justice in education. Considering concepts of citizenship and social justice from a variety of contemporary perspectives, Everyday Social Justice and Citizenship should be considered essential reading for academics and students from a range of social scientific disciplines with an interest in social justice, as well as those working in education, community work, youth work and chaplaincy.

Collecting a wide range of contemporary and classical essays dealing with medical ethics, this huge volu me is the finest resource available for engaging the pressin g problems posed by medical advances. '

Annotation In bioethics, discussions of justice have tended to focus on questions of fairness in access to health care: is there a right to medical treatment, and how should priorities be set when medical resources are scarce. But health care is only one of many factors that determine the extent to which people live healthy lives, and fairness is not the only consideration in determining whether a health policy is just. In this pathbreaking book, senior bioethicists Powers and Faden confront foundational issues about health and justice. How much inequality in health can a just society tolerate. The audience for the book is scholars and students of bioethics and moral and political philosophy, as well as anyone interested in public health and health policy.