Books: Christianity & Medicine, Biomedical Ethics
Reclaiming the Body, Joel Shuman and Brian Volck, MD
"An accessible volume that seeks to rework how Christians think about their engagement with medicine. [The authors] want Christians to consider not only the individual bodies that they present to the doctor for repair, but also the corporate body of Christ."--Christian Century
"The contemporary literature of bioethics, although vast, can often make for unsatisfactory reading. It tends to place too much emphasis on patient autonomy, yet fails to adequately examine the ethical implications of procedures such as genetic testing, abortion, and euthanasia. . . . It is refreshing, in this environment, to read Joel Shuman and Brian Volck's Reclaiming the Body. Theirs is not a typical jargon-laden bioethics treatise. Shuman, a moral theologian, and Volck, a pediatrician, have crafted a different kind of book: a readable monograph that takes as its starting point theology and faith, not medicine. . . . Shuman and Volck offer very few concrete answers to the questions they pose; this is in fact one of the great strengths of the book. The authors offer a new and more illuminating perspective, not merely prescriptions for behavior. The book is an extended conversation with medicine, not a condemnation, and it is a conversation that yields a wealth of insights into the challenges that our contemporary health technologies pose."--Christine Rosen, Commonweal
Bioethics: a Primer for Christians, Gilbert Meilaender
From First Things:
The books written on bioethics in the last thirty years would fill a very sizable library. The Christian who simply wants to get a reliable handle on the subject will find nothing better than this splendid little book. Meilaender, a regular contributor to this journal, provides a solid introduction to subjects as various as contraception, genetic engineering, prenatal screening, assisted suicide, and organ donation. It is seldom, and therefore all the more welcome, that one who is a master of his field takes the time to walk the nonspecialist through it. Meilaender does that without a hint of condescension, and with an easy style that will engage those who might otherwise be intimidated by his expertise. Highly recommended.
Darkness is My Only Companion: a Christian Response to Mental Illness, Kathryn Greene-McCreight.
Theologically sound and medically astute, this is a safe guide for those who battle the darkness of mental illness and for those who care about them. As a bonus blessing, the book is deeply moving and wrapped in a package of delightful prose.
Greene-McCreight, an Episcopal priest, does what is so desperately needed in our therapeutic society?she practices psychotherapy under the authority of Scripture. A careful theologian, fully committed to the authority of Scripture, yet the beneficiary of healing therapy with an astonishingly wide and deep understanding of the field, the author weds the two convincingly. This is not a mere academic treatise, however.
The author invites us to join her in a journey through her own darkness, opening every shadowed corner of her soul, yet without a trace of the maudlin.
The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis.
From Chapter 3:
"`Man's conquest of Nature' is an expression often used to describe the progress of applied science. `Man has Nature whacked,' said someone to a friend of mine not long ago. In their context the words had a certain tragic beauty, for the speaker was dying of tuberculosis. `No matter' he said, `I know I'm one of the casualties. Of course there are casualties on the winning as well as on the losing side. But that doesn't alter the fact that it is winning.' I have chosen this story as my point of departure in order to make it clear that I do not wish to disparage all that is really beneficial in the process described as `Man's conquest', much less all the real devotion and self-sacrifice that has gone to make it possible. But having done so I must proceed to analyse this conception a little more closely. In what sense is Man the possessor of increasing power over Nature? "
Embryo: A Defense of Human Life, by Robert P. George & Christopher Tollefson.
About this Book
The bitter national debates over abortion, euthanasia, and stem cell research have created an unbridgeable gap between religious groups and those who insist that faith-based views have no place in public policy. Religious conservatives are so adamantly opposed to stem cell research in particular that President Bush issued the first veto of his presidency over a bill that would have provided federal funding for such research.
Now, in this timely consideration of the nature and rights of human embryos, Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen make a persuasive case that we as a society should neither condone nor publicly fund embryonic stem cell research of any kind.
Typically, right-to-life arguments have been based explicitly on moral and religious grounds. In Embryo, the authors eschew religious arguments and make a purely scientific and philosophical case that the fetus, from the instant of conception, is a human being, with all the moral and political rights inherent in that status. As such, stem cell research that destroys a viable embryo represents the unacceptable taking of a human life.
There is also no room in their view for a ?moral dualism? that regards being a ?person? as merely a stage in a human life span. An embryo does not exist in a ?prepersonal? stage that does not merit the inviolable rights otherwise ascribed to persons. Instead, the authors argue, the right not to be intentionally killed is inherent in the fact of being a human being, and that status begins at the moment of conception.
Moreover, just as none should be excluded from moral and legal protections based on race, sex, religion, or ethnicity, none should be excluded on the basis of age, size, or stage of biological development.
George and Tollefsen fearlessly grapple with the political, scientific, and cultural consequences arising from their position and offer a summary of scientific alternatives to embryonic stem cell research. They conclude that the state has an ethical and moral obligation to protect embryonic human beings in just the same manner that it protects every other human being, and they advocate for embryo adoption?the only ethical solution to the problem of spare embryos resulting from in-vitro fertilization.
About the Author
ROBERT P. GEORGE, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, is a professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is the author of Making Men Moral, In Defense of Natural Law, and The Clash of Orthodoxies. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
CHRISTOPHER TOLLEFSEN is an associate professor in the department of philosophy at the University of South Carolina, the director of the graduate program in philosophy, and author of the forthcoming Biomedical Research and Beyond. He lives in Columbia, South Carolina.
The Patient as Person: Explorations in Medical Ethics, Paul Ramsey.
As physicians are faced with new and wonderful options for saving lives, transplanting organs, and furthering research, they also must wrestle with new and troubling choices-who should receive scarce and vital treatment, how we determine when life ends, what limits should be placed on care for the dying, and more. This book by renowned theologian Paul Ramsey, first published thirty years ago, anticipated these moral and ethical issues and addressed them with cogency and power, providing the intellectual foundations for the field of bioethics. This second edition of Ramsey's classic work includes a new foreword by Margaret Farley and essays by Albert R. Jonsen and William F. May that help to locate and interpret Ramsey historically and intellectually.
The Sacred Gift of Life, by John Breck
The discipline of "bioethics" has developed in response to unprecedented advances made during the past three decades in the area of biomedical technology. Many of those advances have an extraordinary potential for good; nevertheless, much of the new technology has placed us on a dramatic slide down the "slippery slope," from partial-birth abortions to physician-assisted suicide, from surrogate gestation to the cloning of human embryos. How does Orthodox Christianity view these developments?
This book focuses on these issues from the perspective of Scripture and Orthodox patristic tradition. Beginning with a discussion of present-day bioethical dilemmas, it provides an overview of major theological themes that condition any Orthodox response to issues involving the creation and termination of human life. The following chapters then take up questions concerning the meaning of sexuality and the morality of various forms of sexual behavior; the question "when does human life begin?" a moral assessment, from an Orthodox perspective, of procedures such as abortion, in vitro fertilization, and genetic engineering (including human cloning); and end of life issues, including the meaning of suffering, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and care for the terminally ill.
The Sacred Gift of Life provides clear, rich, and compassionate evaluation of these issues. Its informed assessment of various therapeutic protocols makes it of special interest to those medical professionals who want to inform themselves of the unique theological perspective that Orthodoxy Christianity brings to bear on these difficult and controversial questions.
The Very Reverend John Breck was Professor of New Testament and Ethics at St Vladimir's Seminary from 1984 to 1996. He is presently Professor of Biblical Interpretation and Ethics at St Sergius Theological Institute, Paris, France, and with his wife, Lyn, he directs the St Silouan Retreat Center near Charleston, SC.
ISBN 978-0-881-41183-6
6 x 9
320 pp
Price: US $20.00
Neither Beast Nor God, Gilbert Meilaender
?Neither Beast nor God is an exceptionally lucid exploration of the meanings of human dignity. In the classroom, it would beautifully serve alongside Atwood?s Oryx and Crake or Ishiguro?s Never Let Me Go to quicken in students an apt and ?honest puzzlement? (Meilaender?s term) about who and whose we are in the age of biotechnology. Teachers of moral philosophy should assign this book to their students ? I will ? and medical practitioners should read it with care.?
? Amy Laura Hall
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics
Duke University Divinity School