Title: | Gaudium et Spes on human dignity and its implications in bioethics |
Authors: | Kania, Witold |
Keywords: | Gaudium et Spes; human dignity; abortion; euthanasia; Groningen Protocol; bioethics |
Issue Date: | 2016 |
Publisher: | Katowice : Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego |
Citation: | Philosophy and Canon Law, Vol. 2 (2016), s. 83-97 |
Abstract: | Promulgation of Gaudium et Spes coincided with the beginnings of bioethics as
well as the cultural and technological revolution of the late 1960s. In this way, the teaching of
the Church has become a prophetic voice on many contemporary crimes against humanity. In
the first part, the article presents the conciliar anthropology which is based on the Bible along
with classical philosophy and constitutes the foundation for dignity. According to it, every human
person, as a corporeal and spiritual being created in God’s image and likeness, is endowed
with dignity. In this philosophical idiom, the aforesaid dignity can be defined as ontological.
It belongs to every human person and is inalienable and inviolable. The second part of the text
shows the historical and geographical development of new challenges that threaten the human
dignity. In many countries, national legislation supports abortion and euthanasia. It creates a new
mentality: “the culture of death.” In its last part, the article examines the paradigm of modern
“progressive” moral decadence: the Dutch legislation on euthanasia of new-borns. The so-called
Groningen Protocol is an example of the erroneous belief that “death is more humane than continued
life in suffering.” The only means to healing the mentality affected by “the culture of
death” is respect for human dignity: the sanctity of human life. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12128/6076 |
ISSN: | 2450-4955 |
Appears in Collections: | Artykuły (W.Teol)
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