Bioethics with Liberty and Justice: Themes in the Work of Joseph M. Boyle

Description

Joseph M. Boyle Jr. has been a major contributor to the development of Catholic bioethics over the past thirty five years. Boyle’s contribution has had an impact on philosophers, theologians, and medical practitioners, and his work has in many ways come to be synonymous with analytically rigorous philosophical bioethics done in the Catholic intellectual tradition. Four main themes stand out as central to Boyle’s contribution: • the sanctity of life and bioethics: Boyle has elaborated a view of the ethics of killing at odds with central tenets of the euthanasia mentality; • double effect and bioethics: Boyle is among the pre-eminent defenders of a role for double effect in medical decision making and morality; • the right to health care: Boyle has moved beyond the rhetoric of social justice to provide a natural law grounding for a political right to health care; and • the role of natural law and the natural law tradition in bioethics: Boyle’s arguments have been grounded in a particularly fruitful approach to natural law ethics, the so-called New Natural Law theory. The contributors to BIOETHICS WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE: THEMES IN THE WORK OF JOSEPH M. BOYLE discuss, criticize, and in many cases extend the Boyle’s advances in these areas with rigor and sophistication. It will be of interest to Catholic and philosophical bioethicists alike. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Why Abortion is Seriously Wrong: Two Views....Pages 3-22 Substantial Identity, Rational Nature, and the Right to Life....Pages 23-40 Front Matter....Pages 41-41 Embryo Ethics: Justice and Nascent Human Life....Pages 43-58 Compassion and the Personalism of American Jurisprudence: Bioethical Entailments....Pages 59-74 The Significance of the Ultimate End for the Feeding of PVS Patients: A Reply to Kevin O’Rourke....Pages 75-93 Front Matter....Pages 95-95 Praeter Intentionem in Aquinas and Issues in Bioethics....Pages 97-111 The Action-Omission and Double Effect Distinctions....Pages 113-141 Front Matter....Pages 143-143 Global Bioethics and Natural Law....Pages 145-162 Guided Autonomy and Good Friend Physicians....Pages 163-181 Front Matter....Pages 183-183 Social Justice, Charity and Tax Evasion: A Critical Inquiry....Pages 185-204 Natural Law, Property, and Welfare Rights....Pages 205-219 Health Care Technology and Justice....Pages 221-239 Front Matter....Pages 241-241 An Appreciative Response....Pages 243-258 Back Matter....Pages 259-261