Mette Lebech

Le Mythe Bioéthique

What is bioethics? For those involved in the study or the teaching of bioethics this question is a fundamental one. This book proposes a series of possible answers to this question, converging on the idea that bioethics is a myth. As a whole, the book is a response to the so-called French “bioethical” laws (1994) and to the “bioethics” they propagate. It is therefore, for the French-reading English-speaker, a good introduction to these and to the debates around them. Gerard Memeteau, professor of law and director of the newly established Centre de Droit Medical at the University of Poitiers, documents in his article on the one hand the inconsistencies of the French legal approach, and on the other his own regret at being forced to admit these inconsistencies. Reluctantly, he concludes that the traditional concept of the human being, subject of positive law, is, despite the affirmation of “respect for the human being from the beginning of its life”, …

Stein’s Understanding of Mental Health and Mental Illness

This chapter discusses Stein’s understanding of mental health and mental illness in order to contribute to phenomenologically determine the formal object of psychiatry. It first outlines and defends Stein’s understanding of the psyche as an element of psycho-physical beings constituted from experiences marked by life power. Then it highlights three functions of the psychic mechanism that support mental health and which are affected in mental illness: vitality, rationality and trust. Finally the various ways in which psychic contagion can instigate and aggravate mental illness are discussed. It is argued that psychic causality is causing both the disturbances studied by psychiatry and the state of equilibrium its range of healing practices pursue and that thus the dysfunctional psyche, i.e. the psyche that does not support meaningful experiencing, is the formal object of psychiatry.

Women in Society: The Critical Potential of Stein’s Feminism for Our Understanding of the State

In this paper I intend to place Stein’s philosophy of woman in the context of, on one hand, her (earlier) work on society and the state and, on the other hand, her (later) work on philosophical and theological anthropology. I want to do this in order to assess Stein’s understanding of the role of women in society (as a special case of the relationship of human beings with society) and in order to evaluate the critical potential of Stein’s thought for the organization of the state. First, I briefly discuss the nature and context of Stein’s works on women, society and the human being. Second, I then focus on three key terms: vocation, power and state in order to bring out their relationship to one other. Finally, I address the question of whether Stein’s thought on woman and the state can be summed up by the idea that a significant part of the vocation of the human being is to manage power in and of the state.

Book Reviews: Bioethics: The Dignity of the Individual. Issues of Bioethics and Law. By Teresa Iglesias. Dublin: Pleroma Press, 2001. Pp. xii+212. Np. ISBN 9-781000-000726

This book is a collection of eleven substantial articles, eight of which have been previously published, though updated for this volume. The unity of the book is assured by the coherence of the author’s position, which is founded on the recognition of the dignity of the individual. The two most recent essays, ’Bedrock Truths and the Dignity of the Individual’ and ’The Dignity of the Individual in the Irish Constitution’, make up the first and the last chapters of the book. They anchor the other essays on bioethics and law in a foundational framework. The argumentation of the book is dense. Taking the dignity of the individual as a starting point, each essay is a kind of mental excursion into the thickets of its ethical and legal implications. These excursions are of four kinds. The first (Ch. 2-4) concerns general moral and socio-political issues. It includes chapters treating of medicine as intrinsically ethical, the role of ethics committees, and the nature of moral action. The second kind of excursion (Ch. 5-6) visits the topic of abortion in relation both to foundational issues and to the political reality of Irish society. The third kind (Ch. 7-8) deals with IVF and the use of anonymous donors as suppliers of gametes; whereas the fourth and last kind (Ch. 9-10) explores the biological limits of the individual whose dignity is threatened, and examines brain death as the criterion for establishing when death occurs. According to the author, the starting point for all these excursions the recognition of the dignity of the individual is a necessary one. For the purpose of this review, I will examine this claim as it is expounded in the first chapter of the book. The first essay, in fact, gives its name to the collection and sets the parameters of the discussion.

Book Reviews: Christianity and the Making of the Modern Family. By Rosemary Radford Ruether. London: SCM Press, 2001. Pp. 294. Price: £15.95. ISBN 0-334-02822-1

Furthermore, the acceptance of some aspects of Marxist ideology by some African governments did not imply widespread acceptance of Marxism by the people at large. Nevertheless, in the countries McKenna has chosen for his study, countries where the Catholic Church had a high profile, the impact of Marxist ideas was significant and constituted a serious challenge to the Church and its mission. While acknowledging that there

Book Reviews: Theology of Politics

the text, all of a minor nature. The usefulness of this fine translation would have been enhanced by the inclusion of a thematic index, indicating at least some of the key doctrinal points in the commentary. Likewise, an index of Scripture citations is always an invaluable asset in analysing a patristic text. Sadly both indices are lacking in this otherwise fine and useful volume. FINBARR G. CLANCY, SJ Dublin

Comment on a proposed draft protocol for the European Convention on Biomedicine relating to research on the human embryo and fetus.

Judge Christian Byk renders service to the Steering Committee on Bioethics of the Council of Europe (CDBI) by proposing a draft of the protocol destined to fill in a gap in international law on the status of the human embryo. This proposal, printed in a previous issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics deserves nevertheless to be questioned on important points. Is Christian Byk proposing to legalise research on human embryos not only in vitro but also in utero?