Beginning of Life Issues
COURSE: TRS 732 B
BEGINNING OF LIFE ISSUES
SPRING SEMESTER 2009
REGAN 027
WEDNESDAY, 1:10 -3:40
Professor: Brian Johnstone
Office: Caldwell 505
Phone (202) 319 5120
Meeting by appointment, please notify by e-mail:
Resources: article will be available on Blackboard. (BB8)
Course description:
According to Catholic teaching, the human embryo ought to be treated as a person from the moment of conception. The most recent document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “Instruction Dignitatis Personae on Certain Bioethical Questions,” (09/08/08) states: “ The dignity of a person must be recognized in every human being from conception to natural death.”
The judgment that the embryo is a person, in the Catholic tradition, implies that the embryo is “ensouled.” It is taught by the Church that the soul is “immediately created” by God and that the soul is “infused” by God.
From this doctrine there emerge three kinds of questions. The first kind are anthropological questions, such as what does it mean to be a “person,” what is the “soul” and how the soul is related to the body. The second kind are moral connections, such as how ought we relate to the human embryo. The third kind concern the connection between (1) and (2).
The specific questions to be investigated are:
1) What is meant by “soul.”
2) What is meant by saying that the embryo is “ensouled” or “formed.”
3) What is the significance of the human body?
4) What is the relationship between the soul and the body?
5) How may we form a judgment that the embryo is “a human being” from conception.
6) Is this judgment identical with the judgment that the embryo is a “person?”
The aim of the course is to provide students with a framework within which to deal with these questions and the opportunity to discuss and critique some views on these matters.
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Program:
Wed. Jan 14
Section I
Introduction.
Outline of the course. The current teaching of the Catholic Church.
The traditional teaching: Denzinger-Schönmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum Definitionum et Declarationum de rebus fidei et morum.
“Creatura humana est “quasi communis ex spiritu sive anima rationali et corpore constituta.”
250; 272; 800; 900; 3002.
The human soul is the vital principal of “man.” 2833.
The substance of the rational soul is truly and per se and essentially the immediate form of the human body: 900; 902*; 1440, 2828.
There is one soul in man, not two: 657;
The human soul is immediately ex nihilo created by God. 190; 360; 685; 3896;
The soul is not generated materially by the parents, 360; 1007; 3220
The soul is not evolved from a merely sensitive principle: 3200 ss.
The human person: every man has the property of a person, that is, endowed with intelligence and free will: 3709; 3957.
Dignity of the person? (See DS p. 868. 7bd.)
Readings:
CDF, “Declaration on Abortion,” “Dignitatis Personae.” (2008) (BB)
Section II. The Anthropological Basis.
Wed. Jan 21.
Topic: Ancient theories of the soul.
Readings.
“Ancient Theories of the Soul,” (BB)
Paul O’Callaghan, art. “Soul,” Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia. http://www.inters.org
Wed. Jan 28.
Topic: Aristotle on the soul.
Readings.
Aristotle on the Soul (De Anima). Trans. with Commentaries and Glossary, by Hippocrates G. Apostle (Grinnell, Iowa: The Peripatetic Press, 1981).
Wed. Feb. 4
Topic. St. Augustine on the soul and the time of ensoulement.
Readings:
St. Augustine’s comments on Ex 21:22. Augustine, Quaestiones in Heptateuchum, Book II, ch. 80 (PL 34, 624-25).
LXXX. [Ib. XXI, 22-25.] Si autem litigabunt duo viri, et percusserint mulierem in utero habentem , et exierit infans ejus nondum formatus; detrimentum patietur, quantum indixerit vir mulieris, et dabit cum postulatione. Mihi videtur significationis alicujus causa dici haec, magis quam Scripturam circa hujusmodi facta occupatam. Nam si illud attenderet, ne praegnans mulier percussa in abortum compelleretur, non poneret duos litigantes viros, cum possit et ab uno hoc admitti, qui cum ipsa muliere litigaverit, vel etiam non litigaverit, sed alienae posteritati nocere volendo id fecerit. Quod vero non formatum puerperium noluit ad homicidium pertinere, profecto nec hominem deputavit quod tale in utero geritur. Hic de anima quaestio solet agitari, utrum quod formatum non est, ne animatum quidem possit intelligi, et ideo non sit homicidium, quia nec examinatum dici potest, si adhuc animam non habebat. Sequitur enim et dicit, Ubi quid aliud intelligitur, nisi, et ipse morietur? Nam hoc et in caeteris ex hac occasione jam praecipit, Oculum pro oculo, dentem pro dente, manum pro manu, pedem pro pede, combustionem pro combustione, vulnus pro vulnere, livorem pro livore: talionis videlicet aequitate. Quae Lex ideo constituit, ut demonstraret quae vindicta debeatur. Nisi enim per Legem sciretur quid vindictae deberetur, unde sciretur quid venia relaxaret, ut dici posset, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris? (Id. VI, 12.) Debitores igitur Lege monstrantur, ut quando ignoscitur appareat quid dimittatur. Neque enim debita dimitteremus, nisi quid nobis deberetur Lege indice disceremus. Si ergo illud informe puerperium jam quidem fuerit, sed adhuc quodammodo informiter animatum (quoniam magna de anima quaestio non est praecipitanda indiscussae temeritate sententiae), ideo Lex noluit ad homicidium pertinere, quia nondum dici potest anima viva in eo corpore quod sensu caret, si talis est in carne nondum formata, et ideo nondum sensibus praedita. Quod autem dixit, Et dabit cum postulatione quod maritus mulieris, informi excluso, [Col.0627] dandum constituerit, non est in promptu intelligere: a quippe, quod graecus habet, pluribus modis intelligitur, et tolerabilius cum postulatione dictum est, quam si aliud diceretur. Fortassis enim postulabit ut det, ut eo modo satis Deo faciat, etiamsi maritus mulierve non expetat. (PL 34, cc. 626-27)
The Jewish Background.
Ben Zion Bokser and Kassel Abelson, “A Statement on the Permissibility of Abortion,” in Life and Death Responsibilities in Jewish Biomedical Ethics, ed. Aaron L. Mackler (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Finkelstein Institute, 2000), 195.: Richard Alan Block, “The Right to Do Wrong: Reform Judaism”; David Novak, Law and Theology in Judaism (New York: Ktav, 1974); Isaac Klein, “A Teshuvah on Abortion,” in Mackler, Life and Death Responsibilities in Jewish Biomedical Ethics, 208; Steinberg, Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics, vol. 2, 76-78.
John Connery, S.J., Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola University Press: 1977) 7- 32; (The Jewish Background); 55-59 (Augustine)
Aaron L. Mackler, Introduction to Jewish and Catholic Bioethics: A Comparative Analysis (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2003), 124-126. (BB)
Wed. Feb 11
Topic: St. Thomas on the Soul.
Readings:
St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima, trans. Kenelm Foster, O.P. and Silvester Humphries, O. P. Notre Dame, Ind.: Dumb Ox Books, 1994. Selections, BB.
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, 75-76. (BB)
St. Thomas on Abortion, Connery, Abortion, 110-112. St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Sentences, Commentarium in librum III Sententiarum, d. 3, q. 5, a. 2, Solutio; Summa Theologiae , II-II, 64, a. 8, ad 2, Summa Theologiae, III, 68, a. 11, ad 3.
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Wed. Feb. 18
Seminar paper 2: ““What is the meaning of ‘the soul”?”
Topic: Philosophical developments.
Readings:
Richard Swinburne, The Evolution of the Soul, rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). 145-199; 262-312.
Merleau Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Colin Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2004) 171-201. “The Synthesis of One’s Own Body.”
Section II. The implications for the moral question of abortion.
Wed. Feb. 25 Administrative Monday. No meeting of Wednesday classes.
Wed. March 11
Topic: The Debates in the Catholic tradition and other traditions. The implications for a moral judgment on abortion.
Readings: The position of St. Antoninus, Connery, Abortion, 114.
Further Developments, Connery, Abortion, 114-224. St. Alphonsus Liguori, Connery, 209-210.
The issue of the Immaculate Conception, Connery, 211.
Jones, David Albert, The Soul of the Embryo (London, New York: Continuum, 2004) available Mullen (Reserve) QM 611 J652004. This covers some of the same material as Connery, but includes Protestant authors and more recent texts.
Wed. March 18
Seminar paper 1: “The indicators of the presence of the soul in the traditional sources.”
Topic: The case for delayed animation and the moral implications.
Reading: Ford, Norman. When did I Begin? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). This was the earliest and most extensive study of the empirical data in relation to philosophy and theology.
Brian V. Johnstone, ““The Human Embryo; the Person and the Gift.” BB. A critique of Ford and other authors who hold similar views.
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Wed. March 25
Seminar paper 3. “The sources, meaning and critique of dualism in the contemporay discussion.”
Topic: The critique of dualism.
Readings:
Patrick Lee and Robert P. George, Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
Wed. April 1
Seminar Paper 4: “An analysis and critique of Tauer’s thesis.”
Topic: The Meaning of “Probable” in the CDF’s argument
Readings: Tauer. C. “The Tradition of Probabilism and the Moral Status of the Early Embryo,” neological Studies 45: (1 984) 3-33. Brian Johnstone, “St. Alfonsus on Probabilism and Equiprobabilism,” Available on BB. , Heinrich Klomps, Tradition und Fortschritt in der moraltheologie (Cologne: Bachem 1963). This essay is the most enlightening treatment of probabilism that I have found. Wed. April 8.
Seminar Paper 4: “The use of the concept of ‘dignity’ in moral arguments, in particular those presented in official Church documents, such as dignitatis personae.”
Topic: The Meaning of “Dignity” in moral theology and in “Dignitatis personae” in particular.
Readings:
Brian Johnstone, “The Meaning of Human Dignity,” Available on BB. This is a study and critique of those authors who reject human dignity and a suggestion for a re-conceptualizing of the notion.
J. Seifert, “The Right to Life and the Fourfold Root of Human Dignity,” In Juan de Dios Vial Correa and Elio Sgreccia, eds. The Nature and Dignity of the Human Person as the Foundation of the Right to Life,” Proceedings of the eighth Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2003) 183-215.
Daniel P. Sulmasy, O,F.M., “ Dignity and the Human as a Natural Kind,” in Carol Taylor, C.S.F.N. and Roberto Dell’Oro, eds. Health and Human Flourishing (Washington, D.C. Georgetown University Press) 71-88.
Daniel P. Sulmasy, O. F. M., “Dignity and Bioethics: History, Theory, and Selected Applications,” in Human Dignity and Bioethics, Essays Commissioned by the President’s Council on Bioetics ( Washington, D.C. 2008) 469-501.
Wed. April 15.
Seminar Paper 5: “The meaning and moral status of the human body.”
Readings:
James Keenan, S.J. “Christian Perspectives on the Human Body,” Theological Studies 55 (1994) 330-346.
See also earlier readings on the soul, and the person.
Seminar Paper 6. “ The human person as a ‘composite’ of body and soul.” Can we say that the body is the ‘instrument” of the soul?
Wed. April 22.
Seminar Paper 6: “An argument to support the thesis that the human embryo ought to be treated as a person from conception.”
Seminar Paper 7: “A critical review of the arguments according to which the embryo is not a person from the moment of conception.”
Wed April 29th. (Last class.)
Summary and conclusion.
BASIC TEXTS (AVAILABLE IN CUA BOOKSTORE).
Aristotle On the Soul. Penguin Classics ISBN 10:Ol40436324 1
Aquinas Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima. Augustines Dumb Ox Books, 1994. ISBN: 188335711X. R
Connery, John. Abortion: The Development of th Roman Catholic Perspective. Chicago: L0YOLA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1977. ISBN 0-8294-0257-8 .
Lee, Patrick and Robert, P. George. Body-Sel£ Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. ISBN I0: 0-521-88248-6
Swinburne, Richard. The Evolution of the Soul Oxford: Clarendon, 1997 rev.ed. ISBN 13: 97801982369861: 10: 0198236980
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