Bioethics and the Human Goods

Alfonso Gomez-Lobo was a thinker and writer of uncommon insight and wisdom. His death was a grievous loss not only for philosophy as an academic discipline, but for truth-seeking in the cause of sound public policy on morally charged issues in our public life. Praise to John Keown, therefore, for bringing us Professor Gomez-Lobo's Bioethics and the Human Goods. It will be a valuable resource in our efforts to shape law and public policy in line with central truths about right and wrong. -- Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University Alfonso Gomez-Lobo was probably the best representative of natural law ethics that I have had the privilege of knowing. Bioethics and the Human Goods lays out the essential elements of this tradition before engaging a host of issues in bioethics, particularly around the beginning and end of human life. While disagreeing with much of the vision presented here, I cannot help admiring its moral seriousness, intelligence, and coherence. -- David DeGrazia, author of Human Identity and Bioethics and Creation Ethics: Reproduction, Genetics, and Quality of Life, George Washington University

Emphasising on human goods such as life, health, friendship, and knowledge and the wrongness of intentionally turning against them, the book provides a valuable approach to controversial bioethical questions at the beginning and end of life. Its approach contrasts with that of the dominant bioethical theories of utilitarianism and principlism.Bioethics and the Human Goods offers students and general readers a brief introduction to bioethics from a "natural law" philosophical perspective. This perspective, which traces its origins to classical antiquity, has profoundly shaped Western ethics and law and is enjoying an exciting renaissance. While compatible with much in the ethical thought of the great religions, it is grounded in reason, not religion. In contrast to the currently dominant bioethical theories of utilitarianism and principlism, the natural law approach offers an understanding of human flourishing grounded in basic human goods, including life, health, friendship, and knowledge, and in the wrongness of intentionally turning against, or neglecting, these goods. The book is divided into two sections: Foundations and Issues. Foundations sketches a natural law understanding of the important ethical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice and explores different understandings of "personhood" and whether human embryos are persons. Issues applies a natural law perspective to some of the most controversial debates in contemporary bioethics at the beginning and end of life: research on human embryos, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, the withdrawal of tube-feeding from patients in a "persistent vegetative state," and the definition of death. The text is completed by appendices featuring personal statements by Alfonso Gomez-Lobo on the status of the human embryo and on the definition and determination of death.