LOVE: -Ardent affection [Merriam-Webster pocket dictionary 1963]
-Disposition to want the good of an humanized entity (God, the neighbor, mankind, homeland) and to sacrifice oneself for it. [Le Petit Robert]
- Not found in medical dictionary …
I love chocolate …
I love soccer
I love my pet
I love nature
I love my wife
I love my children
“no one has greater love than to lay down his life for one’s friends”
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God is Love.
[1 John, 4:16 : “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.”]
Men and women [we] are the image of God.
[Genesis, 1:27 : God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.]
Jesus’ commandment.
[John 15:12-13 : This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.]
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Best environment for this growth ? (1) (2) (3) (?)
1-] marriage [ an union of two persons opened to life and actively seeking God ‘s help/grace]
2-] more challenging: consecrated life in communal environment
3-] contemplative life
4-] ???
Journey: “Holy journey”[including formation of conscience]:
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PROCREATION
FAMILY PLANNING
CATHOLIC TEACHING
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The calling of spouses to be co-creators with God in giving rise to new human lives
Strong sexual impulses/energies: gift of God [Genesis 1:28 “Be fertile and multiply”; Genesis 1:31 “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.”] Powerful tools in the holy journey.
Maternity and paternity are not an option in a catholic couple’s life; it is an integral part of the person’s growth towards her/his fulfillment: to be Love. Spiritual parenthood may achieve the same goal with God’s grace.
Responsible procreation:
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Evolution of civilization => evolution of need
Primitive world [survival of species very precarious]
Greco Roman empires – Middle age [ species more protected, but fight between groups was keeping down population]
Pre-industrial age [need for man power in the fields and any other activities / high infantile mortality / poor infection control]
20th century [increased hygiene / improved social structure // improved health care --- increased cost of life --- necessity for a responsible couple to exert (develop) some control on their fertility]
Birth control means
Physical barriers [condom, diaphragm, spermicidal creams/jellies, vaginal contractive sponges…] / Contraceptive pills or implants / interrupted coitus / sterilization
Even if used for valid reasons, according to Catholic doctrine the above means are not ethically acceptable because they separate the procreative and unitive meanings of the conjugal act.
Intrauterine devices / MAP => disguised abortions
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Birth regulation
Natural family planning: these are methods through which the fertile and non-fertile phase of the woman’s cycle can be identified…Recourse to infertile periods enables both procreative and unitive meanings of the conjugal act to be kept together. In other words, the conjugal act’s potential to be fertile remains unchanged by respecting the truth inscribed into the language of sexuality. This language of sexuality expresses a dynamic of giving/receiving on the part of the man and woman in his or her totality. The application of these methods – involving periods of continence within each cycle – actively involves both spouses in a style of life characterized by open and deep dialogue between them in order to share totally the responsibility of the choices they have made.
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MEDICALLY ASSISTED PROCREATION
[ASSISTED
REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES (ART)]
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MEDICALLY ASSISTED PROCREATION
[Assisted reproductive technologies (ART)]
ART are all the technologies generally used to overcome infertility problems and to help achieve human conception when sexual intercourse is unsuccessful in producing pregnancy. In the Catholic bioethical reasoning, a few of these treatments are considered morally acceptable while most of them are held to be illicit.
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Acceptable treatments:
Medications for erectile dysfunction, or for vaginal dryness
Surgery for structural anomaly
[damaged fallopian tubes, segmented
uterus, …]
Medications for decrease gametes
availability [ oligospermia, ovulation dysfunction, …]
Assisted fertilization of the husband’s
[AIH] sperm after intercourse
[homologous] for obstacles to the
spermatozoon’s journey towards the ovum
[vaginal antibodies, …]
In vivo fertilization that respect the
personal dimension of marital intercourse and protect every embryo, e.g.
tubal ovum Transfer [TOT] or gamete intra-fallopian transfer [GIFT]
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Illicit treatments:
Artificial insemination by a donor [AID] i.e. insemination of a woman with the sperm of a donor who is not her husband [heterologous], or fertilization with the husband’s sperm of an ovum not from his wife.
In vitro fertilization (IVF): multiple ova are matured through hormonal stimulation and retrieved by transvaginal ultrasound-guided needle aspiration. Fertilization occurs in the laboratory. Resulting [usually multiple] embryos may be transferred to the woman who produced the ovum [standard IVF] or cryopreserved for future use. They may be transferred to another infertile woman [embryo donation], or to a surrogate mother [a woman contracted to carry on the pregnancy for someone else]. Embryos may also be donated for research.Future possibility: ectogenesis: the development of fetuses in mechanical wombs
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Reasons for illicit treatments not to be morally acceptable:
They do not respect the rights of the fetus as a human being. “…the human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized…” Pope JPII ( Instruction Donum Vitae, 79; cf. Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 60).
They destroy the entity of a family. “ …as many as 5 adults may play parenting roles in ARTs: the genetic mother and father (ovum and sperm providers), the gestational mother and the intended social parents. Each party has his or her own interests and vulnerabilities. Any offspring who result are the most vulnerable of all, since they could not consent to the arrangements that will profoundly shape their developing identities. … A recent US case involving all 5 possible reproductive collaborators left the resulting child without any legal parent until she was 3 years old. Other family variations – such as women who bear their own genetic grandchildren, postmenopausal pregnancies …challenge social, legal and historical norm.” CMAJ 2001; 164 (11): 1589-94.
In artificial insemination by a donor [AID], the child to be born is precluded from the right to a paternity that is certain.
In In vitro fertilization, multiple embryos; many destroyed i.e. killed; or stored like objects or used for experimentation.
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Respect for life and suffering
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RESPECT FOR LIFE AND SUFFERING [1]
{1} [Excerpts from: CMAJ 2001; 165(2): 189-92. Hazel J. Markwell,
Barry F. Brown: “Bioethics for clinicians: 27. Catholic bioethics]
“Fundamental to Catholic bioethics is a belief in the sanctity of life: the value of a human life, as a creation of God and a gift in trust, is beyond human evaluation and authority. God maintains dominion over it. In this view, we are stewards, not owners, of our own bodies and are accountable to God for the life that has been given to us. Life, however, is not an absolute value, for the Catholic understanding of its meaning and purpose is founded in a belief in the resurrection of Christ and the hope of an afterlife…
… The Catholic tradition also holds that human life and personhood begin prenatally. Therefore, although the Canadian Criminal Code takes birth as the point at which a legal person comes into existence, Catholic ethics presumes a human fetus to be, at every stage, a person possessing a right to life…
… Underlying the Catholic stance on specific bioethical questions is a metaphysical conception of the person as a composite of body and soul. As long as there is a living body, even if mental capacities are reduced or absent, there is still a person present. A human being is considered to be a person from conception to the death of the whole. In contrast, modern society sometimes tends to take a developmental or “gradualist” view, such that personhood begins some time later than conception and can be lost (for example, in the extreme stages of dementia or in a persistent vegetative state) well before the physical death of the individual. The difference between these stances is of profound ethical significance for both beginning-of-life and end-of-life decisions…
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Drawings: pp. 17 – 22
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Suffering inherent part of growth:
Precious metal
Grain of wheat [amaryllis]
Birth
Path of growth of love
Jesus has changed for ever the meaning of suffering out of love for us
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Euthanasia: acting with the intention to take the life of a patient upon his or her request
Assisted suicide: directly assisting someone in intentionally causing his or her own death
Relentless life support: prolongation of life by medical means beyond life’s natural limits
Palliative Care: active and compassionate care primarily directed toward improving the quality of life for people who are dying and toward supporting patients and families as they incur multiple losses. [E. J. Latimer]
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RESPECT FOR LIFE AND SUFFERING [2]
Reference {1}
… Judaism, Islam and Christianity maintain that we have a duty to protect the life given to us by God; accordingly, these faith have lways rejected suicide… Failure to use ordinary measures to preserve life is regarded as morally equivalent to suicide within the Catholic tradition… Since the 16 th century Catholic theologians have made a distinction between ordinary and extraordinary measures, holding that a person is obligated to use ordinary measures but has the choice whether to accept extraordinary measures…
…””Ordinary means of preserving life are all medicines, treatments, and operations which offer a reasonable hope of benefit for the patient and which can be obtained and used without excessive expense, pain or other inconvenience… Extraordinary means of preserving life … mean all medicines, treatments, and operations which cannot be obtained without excessive expense, pain or other inconvenience, or which, if used, would not offer hope of benefit.””…
…It is also clear that one can not think in terms of an A list of ordinary procedures and a B list of extraordinary ones. The use of a ventilator, for example, may be ordinary or extraordinary, depending on the condition of the patient, his or her prognosis, the stage of the illness and so forth
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Why euthanasia ?
Out of fear of loosing control on one’s own life? Fear of relentless life support?
advanced directives/living wills
Out of fear of death?
people lobbying for euthanasia are more often people still relatively healthy while sick and dying people rarely request euthanasia
Out of fear of
physical pain? = palliative care
psychospiritual pain? = ‘’ ‘’
loneliness? = ‘’ ‘’
loss of dignity? = ‘’ ‘’
poor quality of life? = ‘’ ‘’
SUFFERING?
ALLOWING TO DIE => RESPECT OF LIFE
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What does give dignity to a person ?
An attitude of respect & tenderness i. e. of loving care shown by others. [Love one another as I have loved you]
What does truly give quality, meaning, depth, purpose to life?
Meaningful relationships with others or/and with God. [encountering Jesus/God in suffering]
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