2 General Considerations.00000000pp1pptx

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1. The Human Person the subject of Bioethics is the human person the object of Bioethics is the human person’s action as related in the health sciences and health care

2. GENERAL CONSIDERATION ON THE MORAL DIMENSION OF THE HUMAN PERSON

3. PERSON Someone who is endowed with intelligence and free wi8ll to be an individual, and responsible for his own actions.

4. History of views on the human person: Ancient times – the human thought was primarily concerned with nature of which humankind was seen to be a part. Medieval times – the human thought emphasized the plan of God in which humankind had a major role to fulfill Contemporary – the human being asks who he is and what meaning his life may have and he sees the world in terms of its consequences for the human condition.

5. THE HUMAN PERSON in the context of HEALTH CARE The human person is a being with a radical capacity for embodied intelligent freedom, whether that capacity is still undeveloped or has been frustrated by accident, disease or neglect and, thus, has inalienable rights that should be ethically respected, including those rights which relate to health care. -Benedict M. Ashley and Kevin O’Rourke “ETHICS OF HEALTH CARE”, p.4

6. We look at the human person and consider all aspects of the human being. The guiding vision is an authentically humanizing ethics .

7. Authentically humanizing ethics means an ethics that effectively helps concrete human beings achieve the full development and expression of his humanity in each historical situation that he finds himself in. this stresses responsibility of each human being towards his/her fellow human being and towards the whole of reality. it is a humanism of responsibility by which we affirm and accept that all human beings have the moral responsibility to promote and defend his own dignity and that of his fellow human beings.

8. HUMAN DIGNITY … the origin and foundation of the duty of absolute respect for human life are to be found in the dignity proper to the person… …man is the only creature on earth which God willed for Himself.

9. BASES OF THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON every human person is created by God in His image and likeness. every human person is endowed with intelligence to know and a free will to decide/choose. the creation of the human soul is a direct action of God. every human person is called into existence in relation to God. each human person is unique and irreplaceable. each human person is called to maturity and eternal life.

10. This leads to a principle that: THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON IS THE STRUCTURAL NUCLEUS OF ETHICS – this is a fundamental principle of ethics.

11. HUMAN DIGNITY IS THE STRUCTURAL NUCLEUS OF ETHICS in the sense that moral life is basically the actualization of what is means to be a person in relation (to God) to other person and sentient beings. Respect for the dignity of all persons and each person is the necessary condition for all morally good attitudes and acts.

12. Scope of respect in reference to human dignity: concrete universal egalitarian absolute partisan in favor of those who suffer from dehumanizing situation.

13. Respect for the dignity of the human person should be: CONCRETE In the sense that it refers not to abstract human nature, but to concrete and actual human beings immersed in complexed and conflictive historical realities

14. Respect for the dignity of the human person should be: UNIVERSAL In that it applies to all persons, going beyond geographical and political boundaries

15. Respect for the dignity of the human person should be: EGALITARIAN In that it affirms the equality of all human persons in dignity, rejecting all discrimination, whether this be based on race, religion, sex, ideology, generation, social class or any other arbitrary criterion

16. Respect for the dignity of the human person should be: ABSOLUTE Because respect is inherent in human persons precisely as persons, and not for what they possess, nor for what they can give, nor for their physical, intellectual and social capabilities, but for what they are --- persons. The human person is valuable most of all because he is a person; he is an end in himself and should never be used or manipulated as a mere means for another end.

17. Respect for the dignity of the human person should be: PARTISAN IN FAVOR OF THOSE WHO SUFFER FROM DEHUMANIZING SITUATIONS - in the sense that it has a preferential option in practice in favor of the liberation of those human beings whose humanity has been disfigured by dehumanizing situations – the oppressed, the destitute and other marginalized persons

18. As to its relation to the concrete dimensions of the human person, human dignity as the structural nucleus of ethics entails respecting the human person in all the concrete dimensions of his/her personhood: corporeity social nature reason and liberty

19. CORPOREITY Human beings exist corporeally. The biological bodies and the bases for their human consciousness, and thus for their personhood, and so participate in the dignity of the human person

20. Social Nature Human persons are by nature social; they live together and interact with other persons in society. Within society, the rights and responsibilities of persons should be recognized, and as persons they should be active participants in social and cultural life in a relation of equality with other persons.

21. REASON AND LIBERTY Human persons are characterized by reason and liberty, and are thus called to realize themselves responsibly as persons. They should be active and responsible subjects of their own lives. Consequently, they have a right to access to information that affects them. Liberty of human persons must be respected as long as its exercise does not violate/injure the rights of other persons.

22. Human dignity integrates the “sacred” and the “profane” aspects of the human person The human person is not purely “sacred” nor purely “profane”

23. The “sacred” aspect of the human person: God has deigned to become one of us. God has deigned to make us His adopted children God has deigned us to be shares in His divine life

24. The “profane” aspect of the human person: the human person is not an object in a profane or secular situation, the human person is an absolute value