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38I Am My Brother’s Keeper: Communitarian Obligations to the Dying PersonChristian Bioethics 24 (1): 38-58. 2018.Contemporary arguments concerning the permissibility of physician-assisted suicide [PAS], or suicide in general, often rehearse classical arguments over whether individual persons have a fundamental right based on autonomy to determine their own death, or whether the community has a legitimate interest in individual members’ welfare that would prohibit suicide. I explicate historical arguments pertaining to PAS aligned with these poles. I contend that an ethical indictment of PAS entails moral d…Read more
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52The ontological and moral significance of personsScientia et Fides 5 (2): 217-236. 2017.Many debates in arenas such as bioethics turn on questions regarding the moral status of human beings at various stages of biological development or decline. It is often argued that a human being possesses a fundamental and inviolable moral status insofar as she is a “person”; yet, it is contested whether all or only human beings count as persons. Perhaps there are non-human person, and perhaps not every human being satisfies the definitional criteria for being a person. A further question, whic…Read more
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14Review of The Myth of the Moral Brain: The Limits of Moral Enhancement by Harris Wiseman (review)The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 17 (3): 565-567. 2017.
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9Artificial Nutrition and Hydration: The New Catholic Debate edited by Christopher Tollefsen (review)The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 9 (3): 616-619. 2009.
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21The Case for Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Human Enhancement (review)The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 17 (1): 178-179. 2017.
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11The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan (edited book)Lexington Books. 2017.The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan collects sixteen essays written by philosophers and film theorists analyzing moral, metaphysical, epistemological, and political themes that characterize the films of Christopher Nolan.
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Analytic and Thomistic Approaches to Human Nature: A Comparative Metaphysical and Bioethical AnalysisDissertation, Saint Louis University. 2003.One issue in contemporary philosophy that has received significant attention recently concerns the metaphysical nature of human persons. The debate between philosophers who reduce human nature to physical or psychological properties alone, and those who hold that human nature transcends such properties, has engendered a great deal of scholarship and inspired others to formulate accounts that avoid the pitfalls of either extreme. I canvass this debate and focus upon three positions to explicate a…Read more
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804Metaphysical and Ethical Perspectives on Creating Animal-Human ChimerasJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 34 (5): 470-486. 2009.This paper addresses several questions related to the nature, production, and use of animal-human (a-h) chimeras. At the heart of the issue is whether certain types of a-h chimeras should be brought into existence, and, if they are, how we should treat such creatures. In our current research environment, we recognize a dichotomy between research involving nonhuman animal subjects and research involving human subjects, and the classification of a research protocol into one of these categories wil…Read more
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68Ford, Norman M., S.D.B. The Prenatal Person: Ethics from Conception to BirthThe National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 3 (1): 216-218. 2003.
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14The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy: You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2015.Does it take faith to be a Jedi? Are droids capable of thought? Should Jar Jar Binks be held responsible for the rise of the Empire? Presenting entirely new essays, no aspect of the myth and magic of George Lucas’s creation is left philosophically unexamined in The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy. The editors of the original Star Wars and Philosophy strike back in this Ultimate volume that encompasses the complete Star Wars universe Presents the most far-reaching examination of the philosophy …Read more
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3Do human persons persist between death and resurrection?In Kevin Timpe (ed.), Metaphysics and God: Essays in Honor of Eleonore Stump, Routledge. 2009.Thomas Aquinas presents an account of human immortality and bodily resurrection intended to be both faithful to Christian Scripture and metaphysically sound as following from the Aristotelian view of human nature. One central question is whether a human person persists between death and resurrection by virtue of her soul, given Aquinas’s hylomorphic account of human nature and assertion that a human person is not identical to her soul. Robert Pasnau contends that only a part of a person exists …Read more
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2Thomism and the beginning of personhoodIn John P. Lizza (ed.), Defining the beginning and end of life: readings on personal identity and bioethics, Johns Hopkins University Press. 2009.In addressing bioethical issues at the beginning of human life, such as abortion, human embryonic stem cell research, and therapeutic cloning, a primary concern is to establish when a developing human embryo or fetus can be considered a “person”; for it is typically held that only persons are the subjects of moral rights, such as a “right to life.” The 13th century philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas defines a person as “an individual substance of a rational nature” (ST Ia.29.1); he fur…Read more
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63A Thomistic understanding of human deathBioethics 19 (1). 2005.I investigate Thomas Aquinas's metaphysical account of human death, which is defined in terms of a rational soul separating from its material body. The question at hand concerns what criterion best determines when this separation occurs. Aquinas argues that a body has a rational soul only insofar as it is properly organised to support the soul's vegetative, sensitive, and rational capacities. According to the ‘higher‐brain’ concept of death, when a body can no longer provide the biological found…Read more
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26Aquinas (review)Review of Metaphysics 58 (1): 196-197. 2004.Eleonore Stump provides a clear and thorough treatment of some of the main philosophical themes that characterize Aquinas’s vast corpus in a way that allows his thought to be situated among contemporary philosophers and their ideas. This approach allows Stump to address certain criticisms that have been raised against Aquinas’s views as well as the medieval Christian approach to philosophy in general. The proper consideration owed to Aquinas as a key figure in the history of philosophy is given …Read more
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32There are No Circumstances in Which a Doctor May Withhold InformationIn Arthur L. Caplan & Robert Arp (eds.), Contemporary debates in bioethics, Wiley-blackwell. pp. 25--418. 2014.This essay focuses on cases in which a physician elects to withhold, either temporarily or permanently, certain information from a patient for arguably beneficent reasons. That is, the physician is not being self-serving, to herself or her institution, by not revealing this information. Rather, the goal is purely to promote what the physician believes to be in the patient’s best interest by withholding information that may be harmful to him. This practice of informational guardianship is known a…Read more
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33Review of Enhancing Human Capacities edited by Julian Savulescu, Ruud ter Meulen, and Guy Kahane (review)The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13 (3): 565-567. 2013.
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38Creating non-human persons: Might it be worth the risk?American Journal of Bioethics 7 (5). 2007.This Article does not have an abstract
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28Star Trek and PhilosophyOpen Court. 2007.Philosophy and space travel are characterized by the same fundamental purpose: exploration. An essential guide for both philosophers and Trekkers, Star Trek and Philosophy combines a philosophical spirit of inquiry with the beloved television and film series to consider questions not only about the scientific prospects of interstellar travel but also the inward journey to examine the human condition. The expansive topics range from the possibilities for communication among different cultural bac…Read more
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93A Thomistic appraisal of human enhancement technologiesTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics 35 (4): 289-310. 2014.Debate concerning human enhancement often revolves around the question of whether there is a common “nature” that all human beings share and which is unwarrantedly violated by enhancing one’s capabilities beyond the “species-typical” norm. I explicate Thomas Aquinas’s influential theory of human nature, noting certain key traits commonly shared among human beings that define each as a “person” who possesses inviolable moral status. Understanding the specific qualities that define the nature of h…Read more
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638Metaphysical and Moral Status of Cryopreserved EmbryosThe Linacre Quarterly 79 (3): 304-315. 2012.Those who oppose human embryonic stem cell research argue for a clear position on the metaphysical and moral status of human embryos. This position does not differ whether the embryo is present inside its mother’s reproductive tract or in a cryopreservation tank. It is worth examining, however, whether an embryo in “suspended animation” has the same status as one actively developing in utero. I will explore this question from the perspective of Thomas Aquinas’s metaphysical account of human natu…Read more
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51Pomponazzi and Aquinas on the Intellective SoulModern Schoolman 83 (1): 65-77. 2005.One of Thomas Aquinas’s primary philosophical concerns is to provide an account of the nature of a human soul. He bases his account on Aristotle’s De anima, wherein Aristotle gives an account of “soul” (psuchē) as divided into three distinct types: vegetative, sensitive, and intellective. Aristotle defines an intellective soul as proper to human beings and the only type of soul that may potentially exist separated from a material body. Aquinas argues that an intellective soul is indeed sepa…Read more
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21Review of Human Capacities and Moral Status by Russell DiSilvestro (review)The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 11 (3): 586-588. 2011.
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149Varieties of Dualism: Swinburne and AquinasInternational Philosophical Quarterly 50 (1): 39-56. 2010.Thomas Aquinas argues that matter is informed by a rational soul to compose a human person. But a person may survive her body’s death since a rational soul is able to exist and function without matter. This leads to the typical characterization of Aquinas as a dualist. Thomistic dualism, however, is distinct from both Platonic dualism and various accounts of substance dualism offered by philosophers such as Richard Swinburne. For both Plato and Swinburne, a person is identical to an immaterial s…Read more
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35Double-Effect Reasoning (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 83 (2): 295-298. 2009.
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26Review of Theological Bioethics: Participation, Justice, and Change by Lisa Sowle Cahill (review)American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 83 (4): 615-618. 2009.
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25Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy: Knowledge Here Begins Out There (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2008.This thought-provoking book examines the philosophical issues arising from the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica television series, revealing how the ragtag fleet's outward journey to Earth is also an inward exploration for the human survivors and their Cylon pursuers
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116Aquinas'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