Final Flashcards
The principle of cooperation with evil
Used when someone else uses our good actions for evil
Types of cooperation
- Formal Cooperation (Explicit or implicit)
2. Material Cooperation (Immediate or mediate)
Explicit Formal Cooperation
Evil intent is known
Implicit Formal Cooperation
Evil intent is not known but is implied
Immediate Material cooperation
Your action plays a big role
Mediate Material Cooperation
Your action does not play an essential role
Mediate Material cooperation can be morally permissible if
- Proportionality of your doing the action
2. How grave is the evil/What is the good you are doing?
The graveness of an action
- Proximity to the action
- Is your participation essential or nonessential
- Question of Scandal (leading others to sin….We have a moral obligation to reduce scandal)
Conscientious Objection
Have a judgment of conscience about a particular action and you refuse to do that action because your conscience has deemed it morally wrong
Medical Vitalism
Have to do everything to keep a person alive
Subjectivism
Do not have to do anything and it is up to the patient
Ordinary (Medical)
Scientifically established, statistically successful, available
Extraordinary (Medical)
More experimental, not readily available
Ordinary (Church)
Proportionate
Morally Obligatory
Treatments in which the benefits of the treatment outweigh the burdens of the treatment
Extraordinary (Church)
Disproportionate
Morally Optional
Treatments in which the burdens of the treatment outweigh the benefits of the treatment
Can you forgo extraordinary means?
Yes, as long as one does not fail some more serious duty
You need to consider your spiritual and social relationships
Who decides what is extraordinary and what is ordinary?
The patient unless it is contradictory to Catholic Moral Teaching
Can not force a treatment but can not cooperate with an evil action
Preserving Life
Life is good and we are called to preserve it but that duty is not an absolute duty (God has ownership of our lives)
Euthanasia
Intrinsic Evil
An action or an omission which of itself or by intention causes death in order that all suffering be eliminated
Ordinary Universal Teaching
NG Tube
Runs from nose down to stomach; more temporary
GJ Tube
Tube that starts in the stomach and runs down to small instenstine
more permanent
used if someone has issues digesting in stomach
TPN
Nutrition and hydration provided through veins
Used when stomach and small intestine can not digest food
Doctors do not like using long term because of risk
Possible Benefits of ANH
Survival Prolong Life Reduce risk of aspiration (Pneumonia sometimes) increase funtion Communal value of food
Possible Burdens of ANH
Irritation Infection Uncomfortable Complication Financial Burden Increase risk of Aspiration (Pneumonia) Risk of Surgery Take away pleasure of eating and taking away communal aspect sometimes requires restraint
Specific Cases Church Believes ANH is extraordinary
- Very remote places or in extreme poverty where it can not be provided
- Cases where patients can not assimilate food or liquid
- Any complications in the means (Excessively Burdensome)
- Would not be reasonably expected to prolong life
PDE: Lethal Dose of Morphine
Physical Action: Lethal dose
Moral Object: Euthanasia
Intention: Relieve pain by hastening death
Bad Effect (Death) is means to good effect (Relief of Pain)
Murder/suicide is intrinsically evil and you can not do an intrinsic evil even for good intention no matter the magnitude of the good
Personhood of the Fetus
Personhood is a philosophical question, and philosophy is the handmaiden of theology
Is the fetus an individual?
Has unique DNA, can respond to stimulation, and metabolization is occurring within its cells so it appears to be an individual
Should error on the side of caution when we are unsure
How should we treat the fetus?
With the same dignity as a human person
Didache spoke out against abortion and exposure
Church can do this since it has supremacy in the area of faith and morals
Four parts of the promises that spouses make to each other in their wedding vows which they renew during the conjugal act?
I give myself to you freely, faithfully, totally and fruitfully
This is also how God loves us
TOB 1
Human beings are made incomplete and we yearn to be in communion with other people
TOB 2
In order to find ourselves we have to give ourselves
TOB 3
Sexual intercourse in marriage is the most radical from of self giving
It is the only action where we can completely give ourselves to another person
TOB 4
“Language of the body”
With our bodies we say “I give myself to you freely, totally, faithfully, and fruitfully”
“Responsible Parenthood”
At some points in time, not not necessarily at all times, it may be permissable to refrain from having children for financial, health, and other reasons
This is a prudential judgements by the couple (Should be taken to God in prayer)
Values of NFP and Contraception
Refrain from having children (may be permissable)
Disvalues of contraception
Seperation of the procreative and unitive dimensions of the conjugal act by rendering procreation impossible
Eugenics
Movement aimed at improving the human race
Which types of cooperation are always morally impermissible
Explicit/Implicit Formal Cooperation
Immediate Material Cooperation
What distinguishes Implicit formal cooperation and immediate material cooperation?
- If there is another possible reason then it is not necessarily implied
- If there is duress
Duress
Can lessen moral culpability
Referal for contraception
Immediate material-Does it play a big role?
Mediate Material-Perhaps not a big role, other physician might not prescribe
Bads and Goods of Mediate Material referal for contraception
Goods: Ensuring the patient gets a good physician, good care of the patient
Bads: Risk of scandal and the patient actually getting contraception
Compassion means
To suffer with
Physical action of Euthanasia
An action (PAS/Euthanasia) or an ommision (Withdrawing/withholding ordinary treatment) which of itself
Euthanasia (Medical/Legal)
Someone else is responsible for the death of the patient in the name of eliminating suffering
PAS
Physician supplies the means while the patient does the action causing death
Palliative Care
- Symptom Management
- “Big Picture”
- Can happen at any point in life
- No limitation on medical procedures
Who is palliative care for
Helpful for anyone who has chronic conditions which cause complicated symptoms (Symptom management)
Hospice
- Started by Catholics
- Sub part of palliative care
- Can be provided in the home or at hospice home
- Most medical treatments are extraordinary
- Do not necessarily have to have a DNR
- Focus is on comfort care
- No extraordinary means
Who is Hospice for?
People who have 6 or less months to live
Objective
Whats true about the action itself
Subjective
Refers to the moral culpability of the individual
The person might not be completely culpable (might not be fully responsible for the action)
Last rites
End of life situations
- Anointing of the Sick
- Confession
- Eucharist (Viaticum=last eucharist “Preperation for the journey”)
Palliative sedation action
Slowly titrating dose of pain meds
Goods and Bads of Palliative Sedation
Bad Effects: Possibly hastening death
Good Effects: Freedom From pain
PDE Palliative sedation
Physical Action: Giving increasing doses of pain medication
Intention: To free from pain (for the good only)
The good effect occurs at least as immediately as the bad effect
Bad effect is not the means to the good effect
Proportionality (Significant pain, spiritual state of the patient)
PDE Lethal dose of Morphine
Physical Action:Lethal Dose
Intention: To relieve pain and to hasten death
The bad effect is the means to the good effect (If the person does not die you have not achieved what you intended)
Not Proportional (Debatable)
Moral vs Legal question of PAS/Euth
Moral: Whether PAS/Euth is morally right/wrong
Legal: Whether PAS/Euth should be legal/illegal
ANH Church Teaching
ANH is always ordinary except when it is extraordinary
in principle there is an obligation to provide water/food
ANH is normal/minimal care/natural means
Normal care
Comfort but also a medical dimension
Bathing, Turning, Bathroom, Keeping lips moist, ANH
There can be cases where these become extraordinary
Heterologous
One of the gametes comes from a donor
Includes surrogate mother
Homologous
Both gametes come from the spouse
IVF
Egg and sperm are mixed on a petri dish where fertilization occurs
Then the embryo is placed in the womb
ICSI
Similar to IVF but sperm is directly injected into the egg
ZIFT
Similar to IVF but the embryo is placed into the fallopian tube
GIFT
Fertilization occurs in the fallopian tube after egg and sperm are placed there
AI
Sperm deposited into the uterus
Key distinction between permissible and impermissible fertility treatments
The catholic church distinguishes between ARTs which replace and those which assist the conjugal act
NaPro aim
To diagnose and treat the cause of infertility through medical procedures as well as surgery
NaPro Effectiveness
It is as effective if not more effective than IVF
It is permissable since it is assisting not replacing the conjugal act
Reading and engaging with others in a charitable and critical manner
Take what other person has to say seriously and try to understand where they are coming from
Why be charitable and critical
Their opinions may be wrong so you need to think about their argument critically and when it is wrong argue for the truth
You want to engage with them charitably so they will not write you off immediately
Tolerance new view
The truly tolerant person accepts the views of other individuals and treats those individual fairly
He rejects dogmatism and absolutism and considers all views equally valid
Tolerance old view
Respect the rights of individuals to hold and voice their own beliefs/opinions
One’s own right to disagree with these beliefs and challenge them
Subjectivism (T1)
There are moral truths but they are dependent on what each individual believes (Type of Relativism)
Relativism
Moral statements are the kinds of things that can be true or false but can change based on either the individual (subjectivism) or culture (cultural relativism)
Objectivism (TI)
Moral statements are the kinds of things that can be true or false and this does not change.
What is true and false is independent of the individual or culture rather it just is
Two aims of a moral theory
Theoretical and Practical
Theoretical aim
Tries to explain right from wrong
Practical aim
Application of theoretical to concrete examples
Consequentialism
Greatest good for the greatest number (Theoretical and practical)
Kantianism
The reason an action is right is because it treats people as ends
Practical: That actioin should be a universal
Natural Law
We should do good and avoid evil (Method is the theory)
never act against a basic good
Deontological
Morality is based on following commandments of law giver
Teleological
Moral action is right or wrong if it is aimed at the end (telos) of that being
does the act lead to fulfillment?
Does the act contradict basic goods?
2 meanings of freedom
Freedom to choose=This is more license and tends to become the strong vs the weak (akin to free will)
Freedom to choose the good= this is aimed at our telos and leads to fulfillment
Three steps of conscience
- Grasp the principles of morality
- Apply to specific situations
- Judgement of a specific act
Extraordinary teaching
Infallible
Response owed by Catholics is an assent of faith
Ordinary and universal
Infallible
Response owed by Catholics is an assent of faith
Ordinary
Authoratative but per se not irreformable
Religious submission of faith/intellect
Prudential
Fallible
Adherence
Grace
Unmerited help from God
Can come in the form of the virtues which are stable dispositions to do the good
They can also come in the form of gifts of the holy spirit
Three parts of a moral action
Object-This is the moral species or the type of the action
Intention-why? if the object is intrinsically evil then you necessarily intend the evil
Circumstances-This is the context such as time and place. These can make a good act good or bad but can not make an evil act good
PVS
- Alive
- Brain functions but upper brain is severely impaired
- Has sleep wake cycles
- No evidence of awareness
- No evidence of communication
Coma
- Alive
- slowed brain function
- No arousal
- No evidence of awareness
- No evidence of communication
MCS
- Alive
- slowed brain function
- Sleep Wake cycles
- Some, minimal but reproducible awareness
- Can be some communication (minimal but reproducible)
Locked in syndrome
- Alive
- Normal Brain function
- Sleep Wake cycles
- Full awareness
- eye movements and blinking
Persistent PVS
Over 1 month
58% regain consciousness
Permanent PVS
12 months post TBI
3 months in non-TBI
Less than 1% regain consciousness
ANH for PVS
In principle there is an obligation however there are some situations where it could be optional
Are PVS patients dying?
In general patients with PVS are not dying
Fr. O’Rurke PVS
Contrary to church teaking
Do not need to provide ANH in case of PVS since the burdens outweigh the benefits
Mere biological life seems to be different from life
Fr. O’Rurke PVS burden
Being kept alive without being able to reach spiritual relationship with God
Response to Fr. O’Rurke PVS
Problematic: Disabled people, might be conscious
Brain Death
- Legally not Alive
- Higher brain and brain stem are not functioning
- No arousal
- No awareness
- No communication
Legal criteria for death
Brain Death
Heart lung death
Catholic Church accepts both of these definitions of death
Brain Death
Irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain including the brainstem
Heart Lung Death
Irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory function
How does the church define death
Seperation of the soul and body (Theological and philisophical question)
Criteria
Criteria tell us when we know death has already occured
What clinical markers are there that give us certainty that the patient has died
(does not tell us the exact moment of death but rather that death has occured which is a scientific question)
Legal Fiction
Useful way of saying something even if it is not true (Time of Death)
Science can tell us
Whats human, and criteria for life (b)
Criteria for something being death (e)
Philisophy can tell us
Personhood (b)
How do we treat the unborn child/is abortion morally permissable (b)
End of personhood/def of death (e) How do you treat the dead body? can you do something to allow death? can you cause death (PAS/EUTH/SUICIDE)? What should you do when you are not sure whether the person has died? How do we treat the dying person?
Church and death
The church accepts the criteria of brain death/heart-lung death as long as the criteria are upheld rigorously
if the person has already died then all treatment becomes extraordinary
Nicanur and death
In order for the patient to be dead all cellular functioning must have ceased
Concerned that brain death bodies can still do things that you would not expect a dead body to do
He agrees that to keep treating the person is extraordinary
Is Nicanur dissenting?
Not dissenting since he is disagreeing with the scientific criteria
Ventilator and brain death
Brain death comes after lung-heart death so the ventilator is preventing brain death
Abolition of man 1
Mans power over nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with nature as its instrument
Abolition of man 1 technology
Every time men develop something technologically it becomes a thing ( can be given or taken from people)
Technology can be used to exert poer over others
Abolition of man 2
Man’s final conquest has proved to be the abolition of man
Conquest of nature and tao
Conquest of nature (treating everything as a thing) including tao (sort of relatavism)
Nothing objectively true about humanity and morality becomes about emotions
Abolition of man 3
Man’s conquest of nature turns out to be natures conquest of man
AB 3 tradition
If you get rid of traditional morality you return to your bas impulses
Man is not really in control if he goes by his gut
