September 4, 2019 — December 4, 2019

This course will address questions at the intersection of medical technology and the human being, who is not only an animal (with a biological nature), but a person—bearing metaphysical, interpersonal, and spiritual dimensions. In particular, the issue of “brain death” and the philosophical questions it raises about the meaning of death, the body, organ donation, and what it is to be alive will be focused on. This course will examine the historical emergence of bioethics and brain death, assessing the role and meaning of modern technology for ethics and medicine through the thought of Hans Jonas. The second half of the course will examine the meaning of embodiment through both a philosophy and theology of the human body, in the thought of St. John Paul II and others. Questions such as what does the fact of our conception and birth, our existing as male and female, our mortality, and suffering, reveal about the meaning of existence as such, will be explored. The course will conclude by thinking with Wendell Berry about health and wholeness, and the connection between the body, our selves, others, and the earth.

Class will be held in McGivney Hall on Catholic University of America’s campus in Room 006.  For more information, call 202.526.3799 or email [email protected].

The class fee is $150.  Registration has closed for this course.

This course can be taken toward renewal requirements for VCEA licensure. Numerous high schools in the Archdiocese of Washington accept the course for CEU credits.