| HLI Research: Bioethics |
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Embryonic Selection and Reductionby Angelo Serra Embryonic selection and embryonic reduction are two expressions introduced in the practice of "technically assisted reproduction" to indicate: first, the killing of a human embryo produced in a test tube before the transfer in utero, after observations and tests indicating that it will not develop into a normal subject; second, the killing of one or more human embryos in utero when, after the transfer of several embryos, more than one develops. Read More... Euthanasiaby Brian Clowes In general, the term "euthanasia" means any action committed or omitted for the purpose of causing or hastening the death of a human being after birth, allegedly for the purpose of ending the person's suffering. Euthanasiaby Ignacio Carrasco de Paula In contemporary usage, the term euthanasia does not simply mean the quest of palliative medicine to relieve pain, but the act of deliberately killing someone in order to end suffering for "merciful reasons". Appeal is made to the superior interest of the State for ulterior "justification" of such acts, since, it is claimed, that the State has sovereign power over the bodies of those of its members who have become useless to society. Read More... Free Choiceby William E. May The expression "free choice" is connected in today's public opinion with the struggle conducted by different groups in favor of liberalizing the laws on procured abortion in different countries. In the name of the right of the human person to his own body in order to realize his life's project, these groups asserted that a pregnant woman has the right to abortion, and that the law has to respect such a right. Read More... Partial Birth Abortionby Jacques Suaudeau The right to life of every human being is less and less protected by law. The universal scope of this right which was solemnly declared in 1948 and reaffirmed in 1989 in the International Convention on the Rights of the Child is whittled away more and more. This is notably illustrated by the tendency to legalize abortion and euthanasia. The particularly horrible technique of Partial Birth Abortion, to which President Clinton attached his name by vetoing bans against it, calls our attention to a new stage in the current anti-life escalation. The abortion termed "partial" is in fact an infanticide. Read More... Quality of Lifeby Renzo Paccini The term "quality of life" entered the medical vocabulary beginning in the 1950s. It gained ever greater importance in this field as time passed with improvements in medical resuscitation that could lead to overzealous or burdensome medical treatments and progress in the field of prenatal testing for fetal abnormalities. The ambiguousness of this expression poses many concrete problems to the extent that doctors tend to judge the "value" of their patients using a very subjective notion of "wellbeing". Read More... The Legal Status of the Human Embryoby Rodolfo-Carlos Barra Discussions about the humanity of the embryo, product of the male-female union, arise as one tries to formulate premises that facilitate the legalization of abortion and the practices that threaten the very existence of the new being. In this context, it became necessary to coin the term "pre-embryo." This procedure is not new. From antiquity, people have questioned the humanity of other persons every time it became necessary to use arguments to exploit or terminate them. Read More... What is Bioethics?by Marc Lalonde There are different definitions of bioethics. Some see in bioethics nothing new: it is part of the perennial moral reflection about any intervention that man makes on man. Others see a true novelty in this reflection. Between these two positions there is another more balanced position, the personalist position, that considers not only life as an absolute value, but also looks at the whole person in his totality. Read More...
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