Bioethics by Gilbert Meilaender
"Bioethics" by Gilbert Meilaender presents a focused exploration of contemporary bioethical issues, emphasizing a Christian perspective. Rather than attempting to encompass all viewpoints, Meilaender articulates his engagement with what he identifies as "the truth that has claimed us in Jesus," steering the discussion toward moral and ethical considerations rooted in Christian thought. The text begins with the topic of procreation and delves into complex questions surrounding abortion, personhood, and parental rights, urging readers to view these issues through a lens of faith and compassion.
Meilaender also examines advances in medical technology, including genetic testing and treatments, highlighting the potential ethical pitfalls that accompany these innovations. Topics such as euthanasia, the limits of patient autonomy, and the moral implications of organ donation are thoughtfully addressed, emphasizing the physician's responsibility to prioritize patient dignity over mere technical capability. He underscores the importance of recognizing human vulnerability, particularly in discussions about embryos and novel medical practices like cloning, arguing for a stewardship approach rather than a utilitarian one.
Throughout the book, Meilaender advocates for a broader ethical perspective that transcends individual desires for control or enhancement, encouraging a reflection on the value of human life in all its forms. He ultimately suggests that true fulfillment lies beyond the pursuit of physical health, advocating for a hope that acknowledges human limitations and the significance of suffering within a Christian framework. Meilaender’s work serves as a call for deeper contemplation of bioethics, inviting all individuals—regardless of their background—to engage in the moral complexities of modern medicine with reverence and responsibility.
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Bioethics by Gilbert Meilaender
First published: 1996
Edition(s) used:Bioethics: A Primer for Christians. 2d ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005
Genre(s): Nonfiction
Subgenre(s): Didactic treatise; handbook for living
Core issue(s): Abortion; ethics; life; morality; regeneration; virtue
Overview
There are many texts cataloging the broad concerns of modern bioethics; this book is not merely another. Gilbert Meilaender does not attempt to involve all perspectives in presenting the key issues in bioethics. Instead, he presents a more specific focus in Bioethics; he avoids catering to one segment of the populace and instead engages what he calls “the truth that has claimed us in Jesus.”
Meilaender begins at procreation, investigating the language and mentality behind the modern approach to making babies. The beginning of life, as he tells us, is not a matter of the exercise of rights or the self-fulfillment of parents, but rather an engagement of and cooperation with God’s love. This book first analyzes the controversial topic of abortion. Meilaender engages all the familiar questions surrounding the beginning of life, personhood, the woman’s right to privacy, and other concerns surrounding human attitudes toward unwanted pregnancy and people’s ability to accept the unbidden. He reminds the Christian reader that this topic, though controversial for some, should be largely straightforward despite the difficulties that some pregnancies might entail.
Meilaender also looks at medical testing and treatment of fetuses, as the advances of the Human Genome Project bring society closer to genetic diagnosis, treatment, and even enhancement at the fetal stage of life. The wonders of genetic knowledge contain a dark side, he warns, which may lead away from an unconditional commitment to children and toward an attitude of “quality control.”
Other difficult questions confronting modern medicine that Meilaender discusses include suicide and euthanasia, the rejection of life-prolonging treatment, the extent of patient autonomy allowed, and the donation to medicine of organs and embryos. The issues surrounding death and the relief of suffering are opportunities for the author to point out that physicians must not become too enamored of their own abilities. Although pain may be numbed, in the truest sense, real human suffering will continue beyond the reaches of the most advanced medical science. Meilaender points out that death presents no guarantee of relief of suffering for Christians. While medicine can prolong life and hasten death, it cannot control the larger accountability by which each life is bound.
The author comes full circle in his considerations by returning at the end to prenatal life and the embryo. It is, as he says, “the smallest of research subjects,” and it also is a very real embodiment of the Christian duty to “the least among us.” Involved here are artificial fertility, stem cell research, and cloning, at once the most hailed and the most disputed aspects of medical science. Meilaender argues that although embryos may be considered “spare” or destined to die anyway, this status does not serve to justify their use to further scientific progress. He repeatedly asserts that the more vulnerable and hopeless their condition, the greater our duties toward them.
This book takes neither a too suspicious nor too embracing approach toward each discussion of a topic regarding medical progress and bioethics. Medical technology and progress involve important work and achieve valuable goals, yet they are not in themselves an end for which even the smallest human life can be degraded or sacrificed, Meilaender says. It is a mistake to view the efforts of biomedical science as a fight to conquer vulnerability and human nature in the cause of promoting human longevity and satisfying human desire. The author argues for medical science that promotes health in a way that is respectful of the larger needs and responsibilities of humans, body and soul. A particularly useful image is the emphasis on “maximizing care,” as opposed to seeking the end of all suffering. The book follows by saying that if the elimination of suffering were the entirety of the goal, it would often be most efficient to eliminate the sufferers themselves. He shows that the purpose of bioethics, then, is to distinguish between a desire for self-fulfillment through power and control over the physical self and a careful bodily stewardship that allows for “an attentiveness before a good and nurturant God.”
The theme of bioethics as more than a competition between moral perspectives never rings more true than in the area of human suffering. Meilaender sets up an encounter with and contemplation of such suffering as a deeper role for bioethics. It is far too banal an assessment to write off suffering merely as an impediment to true fulfillment. As the author puts it, “our way of life is shaped by the fact that we trust in a God who suffers for our redemption.” Hope is a crucial factor in the contemplation of suffering, a hope that goes beyond the so-called positive attitude. Hope as an encounter with Jesus Christ is what Meilaender offers as the key to Christian bioethics, mindful of the good of the body yet aware of existence beyond it.
Christian Themes
At the beginning of this book, Meilaender clearly indicates his belief that bioethics is not merely for bioethicists but also part of the role of all citizens—physicians, patients, and philosophers alike. In the same way, his approach is not simply to write an apologetic for one viewpoint among the many. This author firmly insists that to speak of “Christian bioethics” is to broaden one’s ethical focus, not narrow it. Only an ethical approach that is mindful of human history can hope to find wisdom in such decisions. This approach invites the reader to consider the larger context of human life, beyond any agenda to simply advance science or technology, in which a decision about medical treatment or research involves recognition of the limits of human nature. The Christian especially should be aware of how the cosmological implications that follow from bodily decisions can be more significant than any physical results.
The fact that Christianity centers on the Incarnation and is sustained by the Resurrection of Christ means that we can neither regard the human body as a mere tool at the mind’s disposal, nor stake too much hope in medical progress and relief. This author emphasizes throughout the book that the satisfaction that medical science purports to offer is not ultimately a true source of fulfillment. The vulnerability of bodily decay, while difficult to grapple with, is an important reminder of the fact that we also are creatures. We are not our own creators, nor are we in full control of human events. The hope for physical health and satisfaction that drives modern medicine and often creates bioethical dilemmas is not an inappropriate desire, as long as it remains subject to the Christian hope that looks beyond physical well-being. Meilaender begins and ends his primer on bioethics affirming Christ as the true source of hope, and highlighting the difference between the responsibility to protect physical health and a misguided desire to find wholeness through medical knowledge.
Sources for Further Study
Eberl, Jason T. Thomistic Principles and Bioethics. New York: Routledge, 2006. An in-depth look at bioethical dilemmas of the beginning and end of life, using the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas as a practically applicable guide.
Elliot, Carl. Better than Well. New York: Norton, 2003. This exploration of the biological pursuit of happiness is an interesting analysis of the problems that may be encountered on the road to genetic enhancement.
Kass, Leon R. Toward a More Natural Science. New York: Free Press, 1985. In this seminal work for Christian bioethics, Kass explores what it means to be human in an era of medical advance and challenge toward human nature.
May, William E. Catholic Bioethics and the Gift of Human Life. Huntington, Ind.: Our Sunday Visitor, 2000. A look at the spectrum of bioethical issues and how modern approaches both derive and deviate from Catholic teaching on humans.
Meilaender, Gilbert. “The Politics of Bioethics.” The Weekly Standard 9, no. 30 (April 12-19, 2004): 13-14. Contains a discussion of the President’s Council on Bioethics and the politics that affected it.