CATHOLIC BIOETHICS : THIS IS MY BODY

1. CATHOLIC BIOETHICS : THIS IS MY BODY ANDREW TREW St. Mary Seminary atrew@jcu.edu The Right to Life is a Human Right… “Bioethics is promoting more reflection on human life .We are all involved in the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life.” (Pope John Paul II, 1995)

2. IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE IT’S MY BODY , MY LIFE • The body is: Material which I can… create / use / abuse / alter / end • Autonomy: My body & medical treatment accept / refuse / withdraw (Canterbury) • Genome Project: nature or nurture ? • My Rights: to… reproduce / die / genetically improve / clone? • No regulation & ethics = My choices. • Quality of life: variable human value.

3. CATHOLIC BIOETHICS: MY BODY… AND SOUL • “The human body shares in ‘the image of God’: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul. Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity.” (Catechism.364) • “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit … and that you are not your own?” (1 Cor6:19) • “You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.” (Ps 139:13) • Theology of the Body. Life as Love

4. CATHOLIC BIOETHICS: THEOLOGY OF THE BODY • “The body enters the definition of sacrament being a visible sign of an invisible reality… the spiritual.” (Pope John Paul II) • Body as Gift: man/woman (marriage); to God (consecrated life); to Charity (love of neighbor) • Giving & Receiving Love as actions. • Body as relationships: Spouse / God / Jesus (Eucharist) / Neighbor • Mutuality of marriage: “Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies” (Eph.5:21). • “Love is a fruit in season at all times and within the reach of every hand. Anyone may gather it and no limit is set.” (Blessed Teresa)

5. MY BODY: GOD’S GIFT • Reproduction: “A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift … not a piece of property, an idea to which the alleged right to a child would lead.” (Cat.2378) • “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” (Jer 1:5) • “A child possesses genuine rights to be respected as a person from the moment of conception.” (Catechism 2378) • The Embryo: “must be defended in its integrity, cared for and healed, … as far as possible like any other human being.” (Catechism 2274)

6. SCIENCE & RELIGION • Pro- faith and Pro- science • “Two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth”. (Faith & Reason.JPII.1997.) • Danger! Scientism. • Science supports Faith! Instruction how to unfold human inside early embryo. • Pontifical Academies: Science/Life. Advise Pope on cutting edge issues. • Darwin : acceptable theory but… • Creation & Evolution of humans requires a Creator or is meaningless. • Human Genome Map does not tell you what it’s like to live in a place called ‘me.’

7. CAN DO = OUGHT TO? 1. ABORTION • “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the new born to perish.” (Didache.1st Century) • “God, the Lord of Life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life from conception”.(Vatican II.G&S). • Acorns & Oak Trees: Embryos = humans without personhood & value? Or, “there are no small murders” (Benedict XVI). • Roe vs. Wade: Refuses to define life. Mother’s body vs. baby’s as embryo acquires + value over time (trimesters).

8. CAN DO = OUGHT TO?2. IVF BABIES • It’s My Baby: first IVF baby, Louise Brown,100% biological child of parents. No surplus embryos/eggs… but... • “Techniques involving only the married couple, though less reprehensible, remain morally unacceptable … no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another … establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.” (Catechism 2376.). • Unitive & Procreative basis of marriage. (Donum Vitae. 1987)

9. IVF BABIES …. • Not My Child? Egg/Sperm Donation = 50% parents’ child. ‘Techno-Affair.’ Gay / healthy / singles: ‘right to reproduce’? Surrogacy: Mom = Grandma? …so… • “These gravely immoral techniques infringe the child’s right to be born of a father a mother known to him and bound to each other in marriage.” (Cat.2376) • Posthumous Babies: take reproductive material from dead spouse. Diane Blood. • Who ’s my Daddy? Rights of the child? One parent family. Family = ?

10. ETHICAL STEM CELLS ? • Surplus Embryos: from IVF centers used in research = ’Clump of cells?’ • Federal Funding ban but private $$. • Adult Stem Cells: 60+ good research outcomes. (and bone marrow leukemia treatments) • Cord Blood: DIY repair kit for our children. Also good for moms. • Catholic Hospitals & cell banks.

11. STEM CELL PRIMER • Embryonic: use cells from embryo surplus( IVF) or created for research. Embryo dies. Inject cells or grow new tissue/organs? • Adult/Cord Blood: take cells and inject in ‘damaged’ part of body. • Media & Science Bias?

12. STEM CELLS… • Embryo destruction: end justifies the means? ‘Harvesting’ (killing) embryo for non-existent ‘cures’. • “Destruction of human embryos … to acquire stem cells, or for any other purpose, contradicts the purported intent of researchers … to promote human welfare.” (Benedict XVI. 2007.Cat.2275)

13. THERAPEUTIC AND HUMAN CLONING • Human Cloning Recipe: take one human egg (Leila,s) & remove nucleus (genetic identity) & add Trew donor cells. Stimulate egg to start cell division and become ‘clonembryo’. Implant in surrogate. Wait nine months… baby is Trew ‘mini-me’. Genetic Xerox (99%) twin of donor, child of donor’s parents. • Unsafe: Improve animal clones first? • Therapeutic Cloning: at ‘clonembryo’ stop. Extract stem cells and kill embryo.

14. DOING UNTO OTHERS • Deciding for incompetent patients. Children / unconscious / coma / PVS / Alzheimer’s: ‘in patient’s shoe.’ • Guardian: visit patient / hear docs. Schiavo: Husband’s award. • No Register of Advance Directives. • Power of Attorney: advocate by your bed, covers most medical cases. • Living Will: applies only if close to death. ‘permanently unconscious/no pain’ or ‘terminally ill’. Family can override?

15. “IT’S MY BODY. IT’S MY LIFE … & DEATH?” • “Starve me/her to Death.” Refusing treatments when you are not dying. • Declaration on Euthanasia(1980): in futile case withdraw life support artificial feeding. Burden exceeds benefit. (Not PVS case like Terri Schiavo; CDF 2007.) • Catechism: Everyone has duty to care for his/her health.

16. IT’S MY DEATH: ASSISTED SUICIDE • “An act or omission which of itself or by intention causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder.” (Catechism 2277 & JPII Gospel of Life) • Compare withdrawing treatment: Intention: take over by Nature/ underlying conditions, not to kill. • Compare ‘Double Effect’: pain killers which may shorten life o.k. • Secular ‘No’: licensing laws / do no harm ( Hippocrates). Supreme Court (Vacco)

17. ASSISTED SUICIDE… • Kevorkian: 130+ ’assisted’ deaths. • Oregon Law: ‘safeguards’. Competent patients / written request / alternatives. Gonzales case. • Hospice/palliative care • ‘Singer Solution’: no personhood/ assist death/take organs. Extreme utilitarian: ‘good’ consequences. • Slippery slope? Dutch experience. Life disposable at will. Duty to die?

18. DONATING THE BODY: ORGANS & LIMBS • Living Donors: Kidney / liver/ bone marrow OK (Catechism 2296) • Ohio Living Will: BMV register of ‘Anatomical Gifts.’ • Using Animal organs? Pigs & Virus • Transplant: Organs / Tissues / Cornea / Limbs / Face / Body? • Shortages: 96,000+. Education / Change law? / ‘Non heart beating’?

19. CONSEQUENCES…? Connect the dots: embryo protection connects to abortion & to IVF clinics & to use of surplus embryos for stem cells. • Our bodies are not some ’thing’ we own; our life and death ought not to be engineered like a product. • Death is not a treatment. Killing pain, not patients is good medicine. • Be Alert: Lobby media / bishops / colleges. • Being Pro Life from life’s beginning to its end / sacred respect for my/your body.