Catholic View of Bioethics

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss Dennehy's (1986) explication of the Catholic view of Bioethics. In general, it is a view that postulates eugenic ambitions as being derived from the antitheistic motives characteristic of secular humanism and several logical errors in the ontological perspective of this philosophy.

Bioethics: The Catholic Perspective

Dennehy characterizes the advocates of the "biological revolution" (this revolution comprises our current state-of-the-art biological knowledge and technology and its capability for genetic manipulation of the species) as primarily composed of secular humanists; by this he means that these advocates are mostly those people who believe that biological knowledge offers a means of "perfecting" human society by ridding it of its evil and other faults. Dennehy equates these advocates with those of the sociopolitical theorists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who believed that economic and social institutions could be engineered to bring about the same goal of perfecting mankind.

Dennehy goes on to note that the Myth of Prometheus (who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man) can be used to reflect the true spiritual motive underlying the belief that man can be perfected by something other than God, be that something economic/social institutions or biological knowledge and know-how. The motive to which Dennehy is referring is that in which learning is pursued not for wis

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next point discussed by Dennehy concerns the consequences of attempts at the usurpation of God's Creative Power which must be destructive. Unlike God, who could create something out of nothing, man must create with something; that is, man must use the resources of matter and energy---"stuff" which since he did not create and he does not have absolute control over. And, without control, destruction must, inevitably, result. Thus, the very nature of God as a creator is not possible for man whose creative powers will ever be analogous and not absolute. The result of the desire to be and to create as God creates is said to be in mortal combat with the limitations, restrictions, and constraints imposed upon man by the pre-existing universe. However, Dennehy goes on to note that not only is man's creative power analogous rather than absolute, so to is his knowledge. In this regard, Dennehy makes the point that human knowledge simply cannot be defended as the standard of all knowing. This can be seen by examining how mankind arrives at knowledge? Man, Dennehy states, arrives at knowledge using precisely the same procedures and methods he used to arrive at his understanding of biology, namely that of empirical methods (observati

Category: Philosophy - C