Lisa Sowle Cahill

Genetics, Commodification, and Social Justice in the Globalization Era

The commercialization of biotechnology, especially research and development by transnational pharmaceutical companies, is already excessive and is increasingly dangerous to distributive justice, human rights, and access of marginal populations to basic human goods. Focusing on gene patenting, this article employs the work of Margaret Jane Radin and others to argue that gene patenting ought to be more highly regulated and that it ought to be regulated with international participation and in view of concerns about solidarity and the common good. The mode of argument called for on this issue is more pragmatic than logical, emphasizing persuasion based on evidence about the reality and effects of control of genetic research by profit-driven biotech companies.

Teleology, Utilitarianism, and Christian Ethics:

Le reexamen des normes morales dans le catholicisme contemporain. Accent mis sur la teleologie de Richard McCormick.

Can Theology Have a Role in “Public” Bioethical Discourse?

In the US religious groups have been active in voicing their bioethical concerns in the public discourse. The Roman Catholic Church and religiously motivated anti-abortion activists have been quite visible in the public discussion of issues ranging from abortion infertility therapies withdrawal of artificial nutrition and direct euthanasia. While some might object to such particularistic groups having a voice in our pluralistic society their legitimacy comes not from their religious origins but from their moral convictions. The bioethical literature is full of opinions written from particular religious points of views but rarely are these opinions grounded in appeals to particular religious beliefs. Rather they are grounded in particular moral convictions that may have originated from religious beliefs. Nonreligious moral convictions have their origins outside of religion but in the literature it is often impossible to tell them apart. Directly religious appeals are rarely used in the literature since their scope would be limited only to those who shared a common religious belief. Instead the opinions are grounded in substantive moral principles. It must be understood that theological contributions to bioethics overlap and coincide with philosophical ones more than they conflict. Based on a commitment of openness and dialogue bioethics provides a forum for people with many different inspirations for their moral convictions to discuss the relevant issues. Theology must play a role in bioethics if only to clarify the issues for the religious community itself. And since the inspiration and motivation for peoples moral convictions can be either religious or not theology need not be excluded from the public dialogue.

The New Testament and Ethics Communities of Social Change

There is a broad recognition that moral norms are most usefully justified not as mere transcriptions of biblical rules, or even as sophisticated references to key narrative themes, but rather as coherent social embodiments of a community formed by Scripture.

Social ethics of embryo and stem cell research

United States debates over stem cell research too often take the status of the embryo as the only decisive ethical issue, assume that if the embryo cannot be shown to be a person its destruction for a good cause is justified, and are insufficiently critical of economic incentives to legitimate and fund such research. Even if stem cell research ought not be banned, it could be situated and controlled on a spectrum of other health care needs through limited funding policies; aggressive peer review; regulatory and legal oversight applying to all research, however funded; and stringent patenting criteria.

Gender and Christian ethics

DEFINING THE TOPIC The term ‘gender’ refers to the personality characteristics, behaviours and social roles that are expected of or assigned to an individual, depending on whether that individual is a male or a female. Gender is different from biological sex. Although some individuals have ambiguous sex characteristics, the human species is in general sexually dimorphic. Humans come in two sexes, male and female, that cooperate for reproduction. Thus the sexual differentiation of individuals into male and female is taken for granted in virtually all societies, and some biologically based behaviours and roles are almost as universally associated with sexual differentiation. These are the behaviours and roles required for reproduction through sexual intercourse, pregnancy, birthing, and lactation and the associated care of infants. Because pregnancy, birth and infant care require a protected environment, and because these activities have historically tended to reduce the ability of pregnant and child-bearing females to fend off enemies and obtain food for themselves and their young, corresponding male roles of hunter and protector have also developed. But it is precisely here that gender enters the picture as a problematic category. Even if some gender differentiation in the reproductive sphere is the natural consequence of sexual dimorphism, how far need gender difference extend in prescribing different psychological and cognitive traits in women and men, or different social roles in other areas? To what degree are women by nature designed for child-bearing and child care, and men for warfare and material productivity?

Abortion and Argument by Analogy

The purpose of this essay is to examine the consistency and coherence of some arguments about abortion. Theological, philosophical, and public policy discussions of abortion are linked by the necessity of understanding the legitimate claims of the fetus on the woman who bears it, as well as on the larger human community. The tools of moral philosophy widely are employed, whether directly or indirectly, to evaluate abortion as one solution to problematic pregnancies. In particular, theologians examining the problem of abortion from the standpoint of normative ethics find it necessary to take into account some of the seminal work in recent moral philosophy. However, the logic of the moral arguments adduced is not always given fully critical attention in either “pro-choice” or “pro-life” positions, whether they be essentially religious, philosophical, or political in character. One logical implement used broadly is the analogical argument. Burdensome pregnancy can be compared to other situations in which the duty of one individual to protect the rights of another either is sustained or is modified. Differences in evaluations of the morality of abortion can be clarified and perhaps reduced by probing the ways in which the morally significant features of fetal dependency, and of maternal and societal obligation, are partly revealed yet partly hidden by the analogical mode of moral argument.

Caritas in Veritate: Benedict's Global Reorientation

Benedicts first encyclical, Deus caritas est, assigned political work to the laity and restricted the Catholic Churchs social activities to charity. Benedicts Word Christology, presented in Jesus of Nazareth, coheres with his longstanding vision of a countercultural Church centered in Europe. Caritas in veritate envisions the Church and its representatives as advocates for global justice. The encyclicals concerns parallel those of the Second Synod for Africa (Rome, October 2009). The significance of this shift in focus for Benedicts Christology, ecclesiology, and politics is still unfolding.

Abortion, Autonomy, and Community

Within the circle of Christian theological ethicists who converse in “the academy, ” as I do, it is definitely not in vogue to voice opposition to the prochoice position. This position is often believed to be en-tailed in a serious commitment to sexual autonomy, to feminism, and to enlightened, humanistic causes in general. To some extent, my contribution to this project is a reaction against that assumption.

Notes on Moral Theology Marriage: Developments in Catholic Theology and Ethics

[Roman Catholic teaching on marriage focuses on interpersonal love of spouses, of which sacramentality and procreation are dimensions. Post Vatican II disputes about sexual morality, divorce, and birth control have taken place in this general context. A new generation of scholars—married, with children—argues for a more social view of marriage, with special concern about socioeconomic pressures. They emphasize that marital and parental commitment needs more attention and support than the justified exceptions, though they do not stress absolute norms.]