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40Enhancing the Imago Dei: Can a Christian Be a Transhumanist?Christian Bioethics 28 (1): 76-93. 2022.Transhumanism is an ideology that embraces the use of various forms of biotechnology to enhance human beings toward the emergence of a “posthuman” kind. In this article, I contrast some of the foundational tenets of Transhumanism with those of Christianity, primarily focusing on their respective anthropologies—that is, their diverse understandings of whether there is an essential nature shared by all human persons and, if so, whether certain features of human nature may be intentionally altered …Read more
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84Fetuses Are Neither Violinists nor ViolatorsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 10 (12): 53-54. 2010.This Article does not have an abstract
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1Enhancement Technologies and ChildrenIn Nico Nortjé & Johan C. Bester (eds.), Pediatric Ethics: Theory and Practice, Springer Verlag. pp. 329-341. 2021.The advent of current and emerging biotechnologies has placed greater levels of control in the hands of parentsParents and prospective parentsParents to shape their children’s physical, cognitiveCognitive, and emotive traits. Ethical questions initially formulated around the selection of embryos or fetuses that have certain desirable versus undesirable traits are now being applied, alongside novel questions, to whether parentsParents have an ethical obligationObligation, or at least a rightRight…Read more
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19Extraordinary Care and the Spiritual Goal of LifeThe National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 5 (3): 491-501. 2005.Kevin O’Rourke argues that Aquinas’s concept of a “spiritual goal of life,” to which Pius XII refers in his famous allocution of 1957, serves as a basis for declaring that certain treatments, such as artificial nutrition and hydration [ANH] for patients in a persistent vegetative state [PVS], are “extraordinary” and thus morally optional. I examine whether O’Rourke properly interprets Aquinas’s concept in this regard and conclude that he is correct in his assessment and that ANH is properly und…Read more
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28Disability, Enhancement, and FlourishingJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 47 (5): 597-611. 2022.Recent debate among bioethicists concerns the potential to enhance human beings’ physical or cognitive capacities by means of genetic, pharmacological, cybernetic, or surgical interventions. Between “transhumanists,” who argue for unreserved enhancement of human capabilities, and “bioconservatives,” who warn against any non-therapeutic manipulation of humanity’s natural condition, lie those who support limited forms of enhancement for the sake of individual and collective human flourishing. Many…Read more
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32Advancing the Case for Organ ProcurementAmerican Journal of Bioethics 9 (8): 22-23. 2009.No abstract
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17The many metaphysical commitments of secular clinical ethics: Expanding the argument for a moral–metaphysical proceduralismBioethics 36 (7): 783-793. 2022.Bioethics, Volume 36, Issue 7, Page 783-793, September 2022.
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29Actual Human Persons Are Sexed, Unified BeingsEthics and Medics 42 (10): 1-3. 2017.Recently, Edward Furton commented on an article that we published in Health Care Ethics USA concerning the philosophical and theological anthropology informing the discussion of appropriate care for individuals with gender dysphoria and intersex conditions. We appreciate the opportunity to clarify the points we made in that article, particularly the metaphysical mechanics underlying our contention that, as part of a unified human person, the human rational soul is sexed. We hope this more in-dep…Read more
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113Aquinas's account of human embryogenesis and recent interpretationsJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 30 (4). 2005.In addressing bioethical issues at the beginning of human life, such as abortion, in vitro fertilization, and embryonic stem cell research, one primary concern regards establishing when a developing human embryo or fetus can be considered a person. Thomas Aquinas argues that an embryo or fetus is not a human person until its body is informed by a rational soul. Aquinas's explicit account of human embryogenesis has been generally rejected by contemporary scholars due to its dependence upon mediev…Read more
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23Dead Enough? NRP-cDCD and Remaining Questions for the Ethics of DCD ProtocolsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 23 (2): 41-43. 2023.In their article, Nielsen Busch and Mjaaland defend the moral permissibility of cDCD, suggesting that much of the controversy around this donation practice has been the result of a misinterpretatio...
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10Receiving the Gift of Life: Stories from Organ Transplant RecipientsNarrative Inquiry in Bioethics 12 (2): 103-107. 2022.Abstract:This symposium includes thirteen personal narratives from people who have received at least one organ transplant from a living or deceased donor. These narratives foster better understanding of the experiences of life-saving organ recipients and their families, including post-transplant difficulties experienced—sometimes requiring multiple transplants. This issue also includes three commentaries by Macey L. Levan, Heather Lannon, and Vidya Fleetwood, Roslyn B. Mannon & Krista L. Lentine…Read more