Bioethics: A Catholic Primer

Christians express love of neighbor as one’s self – agapē – by physically caring for the imago Dei, the image of God each human being is. They especially do so by caring for the sick. Indeed, Jesus’ early followers uniquely cared for victims of plague, in stark contrast to pagans. Thus, they followed Jesus’ command to love both God and neighbor – God’s image. Jesus’ story of the good Samaritan – who took care of a half-dead stranger lying by the side of the road – motivated his early followers to found the first hospitals where sickness alone determined eligibility for care. Over generations, this agapaic ethic gave rise to an overarching view of medical care-giving: the Catholic medical ethic.

Cavanaugh succinctly presents this ethic in its most essential aspects. Beginning with the story of the good Samaritan, he recounts how Jesus’ first followers cared for the sick, practicing this new medical ethic. Drawing out the implications of human beings as imago Dei, he gives an overarching view of why this medical code says ‘no’ to acts such as physician-assisted suicide in order to say ‘yes’ to caring for each human being as a unique instance of God’s image.

Cavanaugh concisely addresses: agapē, imago Dei, person, natural law, the elements of ethical acts, hard medical cases, double-effect reasoning, cooperation, appropriation, conscientious objection, and the spiritual care of patients. He concludes with a reflection on Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s spirituality of care-giving: “You did it to me (Matthew, 25:40).”

The search for a distillation of the Catholic medical ethic ends in this slender volume.

Thomas Cavanaugh is professor of philosophy at the University of San Francisco.