“The Traditional Ethic…”

[The following is the complete text of an editorial first published in California Medicine, the official journal of the California Medical Association (Sept., 1970; Vol. 113, No. 3). It was a seminal document in the abortion/euthanasia debate, and remains as relevant today as...
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DISPUTES IN BIOETHICS: ABORTION, EUTHANASIA, AND OTHER CONTROVERSIES

  Christopher Kaczor (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020, paperback, 236 pages, $30) Reviewed by John Grondelski ______________________________________ In his enlightening book Disputes in Bioethics: Abortion, Euthanasia, and Other Controversies, Christopher Kaczor,...
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Covid’s Totalitarian Temptation

  The Covid pandemic unleashed a soft totalitarianism in healthcare policy and bioethical advocacy that may not abate with the decline in infections and deaths from the pandemic. In this essay I will explore why the arrival of a modern plague created conditions that allowed...
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LOSING OUR DIGNITY: HOW SECULARIZED MEDICINE IS UNDERMINING FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN EQUALITY

___________________________________________________ LOSING OUR DIGNITY: HOW SECULARIZED MEDICINE IS UNDERMINING FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN EQUALITY Charles C. Camosy (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2021, paperback, 224 pp., $22.95) Reviewed by Wesley J. Smith...
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BOOKNOTES: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN: THE CASE FOR THE BODY IN PUBLIC BIOETHICS

In his important book, O. Carter Snead asks us to advocate with renewed conviction: As embodied humans, we have crucial human rights as well as inescapable vulnerabilities—and a duty to care for others. Our law and policies must prioritize the right to life and the duty of care...
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technician working on cancer research

Defeating Technocracy Is Crucial to Life

What do I mean by “technocracy?” In essence, the word translates into “rule by experts.” But in its currently gestating iteration, it means much more than that. The looming technocracy threatens to impose substantial control over most important aspects of l...
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BOOKNOTES: WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN: THE CASE FOR THE BODY IN PUBLIC BIOETHICS

  WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN: THE CASE FOR THE BODY IN PUBLIC BIOETHICS O. Carter Snead (Harvard University Press, 2020. Hardcover, pp. 336. Also available on Kindle.) Reviewed by Maria McFadden Maffucci O. Carter Snead’s What It Means to Be Human: The Case for the Body in...
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