evangelium_vitae the dignity of human life

8/3/2019 Evangelium_vitae the Dignity of Human Life

1/49


2/49

EvangeliumEvangelium VitaeVitae(The Gospel of Life)(The Gospel of Life)

Encyclical Letter by the Supreme PontiffJOHN PAUL II

on the Value and Inviolability

of Human Life

25 March 1995


3/49

Some historical notesSome historical notes

-48,000-word (11th) encyclical issued on 25 March1995, Feast of the Annunciation, on the 17th year of

JP IIs pontificate.

-A response to the proceedings of the plenary

meeting of College of Cardinals held from April 4-7,

1991 to discuss threats to the dignity of human life

( Cf EV #5).

-The Cardinals, recognizing the threat, asked thePope, to give an authoritative voice and

expressionto the Churchs magisterium in regard

to the dignity of human life.


4/49

Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth, 1993)

-presented the process of moral analysis

-the why and how of moral decision-making

Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life)

-teaches us of the what of moral decision-making

-direct and voluntary killing of the innocent, abortion,euthanasia, manipulation of life are gravely immoral

acts.


5/49

Outline of the DocumentOutline of the DocumentIntroduction

Chapter 1: THE VOICE OF YOUR BROTHERS BLOOD CRIES TO ME

FROM THE GROUND

- a reflection on the murder of Abel by Cain (Gen. 4)

- present-day threats to human lifecontraception

abortion

techniques of prenatal diagnosis

euthanasia

the demographic question

capital punishment


6/49

Chapter II: I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE

- a Christian message concerning life

- the Paschal mystery as paradigm for fullness of life

- the notion of quality of life

- human life as essentially ordered to eternal life- death as even a passage towards fullness of life

Chapter III: YOU SHALL NOT KILL

- the culture of death- abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, etc

- legal law vis--vis natural moral law


7/49

Chapter IV: YOU DID IT TO ME

-For a new culture of human life

-The collective duty to promote a culture of life

-The culture of life promoters

-Bishops, priests, theologians, catechists, teachers, health care

professionals

-The aids to promotion

prayer, sacraments, charity, the gift of self

-formation of conscience

CONCLUSION: MARY as model of culture of life


8/49

Today we are witnesses of a true war of the

mighty against the weak, a war that looks to

the elimination of the disabled, of those whoare a nuisance, and even those who are poor

and useless in all the moments of existence.

With the complicity of states, colossal means

have been used against people at the dawn

of their life, when their life has been

rendered vulnerable by accident or illness, or

when they are near death.

* The Problem of Threats to Human Life *


9/49


10/49


11/49

Modern Fixation on the Individual


12/49

The Right to Privacy


13/49

Modern Skepticism: All Opinions are Equal

Dictatorship of Relativism


14/49

At the heart of liberty

is the right to define ones

ownconcept of existence, of

meaning, of the universe,

and the mysteryof human life.

Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)


15/49


16/49


17/49

Crimes Against Life: New Rights


18/49


19/49

In seeking the deepest roots of the

struggle between the culture of life andthe culture of death, we cannot restrict

ourselves to the perverse notion of

freedom.We have to go to the heart ofthe tragedy being experienced by modern

man: the eclipse of the sense of God and

of man.

Evangelium Vitae 21


20/49

Foundational PrinciplesFoundational Principles

God as ultimate origin and destination of life

And God said, Let us

make man in our own

image and likeness Inhis own image He made

them. Male and female

He created them.(Gen

1:27)

God is the source of everything we

HAVE and ARE


21/49

Who is the Human Person?

1. Open and relational by nature

openness as the logic of life

per= to

suonare= to sound through

2. Conscious being

3. Embodied spirit

4. Historical reality

5. Unique yet fundamentally equal ( a fitting helper)


22/49

The murder of Abel by Cain ( Gen. 4: 2-16) EV chapter 1

1. The prohibition against murder

But God cannot leave the crime unpunished: from

the ground on which it has been spilt, the blood of

the one murdered demands that God should render

justice (cf. Gen 37:26; Is 26:21; Ez 24:7-8). From this

text the Church has taken the name of the "sins which

cry to God for justice", and, first among them, she has

included willful murder Indeed "the blood is the

life" (Dt 12:23), and life, especially human life,belongs only to God: for this reason whoever attacks

human life, in some way attacks God himself. (EV 9)


23/49

2. The prohibition vs conspiracy against life (EV 12)

- Abortion ( secular definition) :Deliberate endingof a pregnancy by medical intervention. (But

medical personnel will also use this term for a

miscarriage, which is involuntary, calling it a

"spontaneous abortion.")

- Abortion (EV #58 definition) procured abortion

is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever

means it is carried out, of a human being in theinitial phase of his or her existence, extending

from conception to birth.


24/49

3. The prohibition vs capital punishment (EV 9)

- Cain is cursed by God and by the earth (Gen 4:11-12)

- And yet, God is merciful in his punishment, put a

mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should

kill him (Gen 4:15)

- Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity.

God himself pledges to guarantee this. The

paradoxical mystery of the merciful justice of God

is shown forth. ( EV 9, 56)


25/49

2. False notion of Freedom (EV 19)

The tree of knowledge of good and evil

a. Man does not create the truth, hediscovers it

b. Freedom the power to do/choose

what I ought

c. License the power to do what I like

from within people, from their hearts come evil thoughts,

unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit,

licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils

come from within and they defile.(Mk 7:21-22 NAB

also 1 Peter 4: 3-5)


26/49

Consequences of false freedom ( EV 20)

1. a serious distortion of life in society (EV 20)where natural rights can be overturned by the strong,

majority.

To claim the right to abortion, infanticide

and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in

law, means to attribute to human freedom a

perverse and evil significanceThis is the

death of true freedom: "Truly, truly, I say to

you, every one who commits sin is a slave to

sin (Jn 8:34)(EV 20)

2. A society of individuals with no responsibility. Am I my

brothers keeper?


27/49

3. The loss of a sense of God (EV 20)

a. Cain laments, from your face I shall be hidden

(Gen 4:13-14)

b. Man no longer sees himself as mysteriously

different from all the rest of the animals, reduced to

being a thing.

c. Life itself becomes a mere thing which manclaims as his exclusive property, completely

subject to his control and manipulation (EV 22)

You and me baby, we aint nothin but mammals so

lets do it together, like they do in discovery channel.

- from a song byBloodhound Gang


28/49

Consequences of loss of sense mans dignity (EV 23)

1. The notion of Quality of life

quality of life is interpreted primarily or

exclusively as economic efficiency, inordinate

consumerism, physical beauty and pleasure,to the neglect of the more profound

dimensions - interpersonal, spiritual and

religious - of existence(EV 23)

- Phenomenon of prenatal testing forabortion purposes

- Euthanasia or mercy killing


29/49

Some people with poor quality of life * *


30/49

Consequences of loss of sense mans dignity (EV 23)

Utilitarian and Functionalist Philosophies

Speciesism (T. Engelhart, J. Fletcher)

-Thou shall not discriminate on the basis of being a

member of the human species. It makes a distinctionbetween

Human a biological member of the human

speciesPerson a self-conscious, free, moral agent.

Some are considered non-persons.


31/49

Critique of Speciesism

-being a person does not require that here andnowone is functioning as an intelligent, free,

moral agent. One must simply have the innate

powerto develop such capacities and to exercisethem more effectively under favorable and

appropriate conditions.

- Fails to distinguish and appreciate thedifference betweenpassive potencyand

active potency.


32/49

Critique of Speciesism

Passive potency having the potential to changebut somebody/something else gives me the

capacity to do that. The capacity is not within

the person/thing concerned.Active potency having the potential to change

and develop and the capacity is not given by

somebody/something else. The capacity isintrinsic and within the person/thing

concerned.


33/49

2. The misuse/abuse of sexuality, procreation


34/49

2. The misuse/abuse of sexuality, procreation

- Wombs for hire

- Designer children, children as property, therapeutic

cloning

- Artificial forms of reproduction: IVF (in vitro fertilization)

3. Confusion of nature of motherhood/fatherhood

a. Natural mother

b. Genetic mother

c. Gestational mother

d. Nurturing mother

e. Genetic/gestational

f. Gestational/nurturing

g. Genetic/nurturing


35/49

Confusion Galore

Mike Keefe, The Denver Post, 3/26/03


36/49

Donum Vitae: Gift of Life(1987)


37/49

Replacing nature vs.

Assisting nature

A medical intervention respects the dignity of

persons when it seeks to assist the conjugal act

either in order to facilitate its performance or in

order to enable it to achieve its objective once it has

been normally performed. (II:7)

If the technical means facilitates the conjugal act or

helps it to reach its natural objectives, it can be

morally acceptable. If, on the other hand, the

procedure were to replace the conjugal act, it is

morally illicit. (II:6)


38/49


39/49

Selective Termination


40/49

Excess Embryos


41/49


42/49

4. The instrumentalization of the human body

- I have a body vs I am a body

- the commercialization of the body sale of

organs

Anatomical/physiological integrity- thephysical completeness of body parts and

organs

Functional integrity the capacity of a personto function as an organic whole regardless of

the loss of some anatomical parts


43/49

4. The instrumentalization of the human body

Mutilation (principle of integrity)- the taking away or purposely rendering

dysfunctional of a healthily functioning part of

the body

-safeguards the principle of stewardship

Therapeutic surgery(principle of totality)

- The justifiable injury or taking away of a

diseased or pathological part of the anatomy

for the purpose of healing.


44/49


45/49

The Bible and the Greek word Brephos

-literally means baby

Luke 1:41 the baby (brephos) leapt in

Elizabeths womb

Luke 2:12,16 and they found the newborn

(brephos) Jesus lying in the manger

Luke 18:15 and the little children(brephos) were being brought to Jesus


46/49

Brephos

- refers to the same person identity

conception, birth, infancy and childhood.

- a continuity of the same personal dignity andidentity

the task of accepting and serving life

involves everyone; and this task must be

fulfilled above all towards life when it is at

its weakest. (EV 43)


47/49

To reject the Culture of Death (EV 28)

- Abortion

- Contraception

- Euthanasia

- Prenatal diagnosis

- Techniques of artificial reproduction

- Capital punishment


48/49


49/49

Some questions for reflectionSome questions for reflection

1. What feelings were evoked in me as I listen to thepresentation? Ano ang aking mga naramdaman habang

nakikinig sa panayam?

2. What challenges, if there are, were aroused in me? May mga

hamon ba akong naramdaman?

3. What is my attitude, point of view with the concerns raised?

Ano ang aking mga pananaw sa mga bagay na pinag-

usapan?

4. Where/how do I manifest my promotion of the Culture oflife? Culture of death? Saan at kailan ko naipapahayag ang

kultura ng buhay? Kultura ng kamatayan?

evangelium_vitae the dignity of human life

Documents