Bioethics, Law, and Human Life Issues: A Catholic Perspective on Marriage, Family, Contraception, Abortion, Reproductive Technology, and Death and Dying

D. Brian Scarnecchia

June 2010 · Scarecrow Press

About this eBook

Bioethics, Law, and Human Life Issues: A Catholic Perspective on Marriage, Family, Contraception, Abortion, Reproductive Technology, and Death and Dying draws on the Magisterial teaching of the Catholic Church to outline a Catholic response to a host of controversial issues related to human life. Scarnecchia lays out a Catholic moral theology based on the writings of Pope John Paul II and Thomas Aquinas, and he then applies those Christian moral principles to today's most contentious ethical issues, including reproductive technology, embryo adoption, contraception, abortion, family and same-sex marriage, and euthanasia and assisted suicide. This review of Catholic moral principles brings together an in-depth consideration of the central human life issues of our day with abundant reference to the Church's social teaching and to contrasting positions of today's leading ethicists.

About the author

D. Brian Scarnecchia is the founding President of the International Solidarity & Human Rights Institute (ISHRI). He is associate professor of Human Life Studies and Legal Studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville and is currently a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law. He is a member of the expert committee of the Rome Forum for Catholic NGOs, and he serves on the Board of Directors and is legal counsel for the Society of Catholic Social Scientists (SCSS) and is their primary representative to the United Nations.