Life, Death, and the Human Person

Life, Death, and the Human Person

JPI 619
3 Credits

This course treats questions concerning illness, medical treatments, and death within the ambit of the anthropological foundations developed in JPI 617: Biology, Medicine, and the Contours of Human Life. Study of the virtue of prudence aids in developing an adequate method for ethical discernment. Issues such as stem cell research and artificial reproductive technologies are considered in light of magisterial teaching and current theological and philosophical reflection. End-of-life issues are also treated, including questions concerning life support and its withdrawal, the use of ordinary/proportionate and extraordinary/disproportionate means, and criteria for determining death—including the neurological standard, commonly referred to as “brain death.”

Selected Texts

Faculty

Lesley Rice portrait

Lesley Rice

Assistant Professor of Bioethics

Dr. Rice received her doctorate in theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute with a dissertation on contemporary Catholic thought concerning biotechnology and the beginning of life. Her research concerns the history and philosophy of biology, the character of biological knowing, and the cultural and anthropological significance of biotechnologies.

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