Theological Concepts: Poverty, Morality, and Bioethics

Theological Concepts: Poverty and Virtue

Material Poverty: The lack of sufficient material means and opportunities to meet basic human needs.

Poverty of Soul: Describes people who are hopeless about life and lack the virtues.

Poverty of Spirit: Connected to the first Beatitudes; a detachment from worldly things and voluntary humility.

Poverty of Addiction: Describes people who seek things such as possessions, prestige, beauty, substances, and sex in an attempt to find fulfillment.

Virtues and Rights

Humility: Virtue that avoids extreme ambition and pride, focusing rather on the acknowledgement that God is the author of all that is good.

Divine Providence: Latin for "God will provide the dispositions by which God guides His creation to perfection to yet be obtained."

Right to Property: In theology, the right to exercise stewardship over a particular part of creation.

Anarchy: The state of lawlessness or political disorder due to the absence of government authority.

Bioethics and Life Issues

The Fifth Commandment and Abortion

Fifth Commandment: "Thou shalt not murder"; the fundamental doctrine that it is always evil to take an innocent human life.

Abortion: The deliberate termination of a pregnancy by killing the unborn child.

Abortion Techniques

• Suction Aspiration: An abortion technique in which a surgical procedure removes the child's limbs.
• Abortifacient Drugs: A chemical agent or drug that induces abortion, used to kill a child within a few days of conception.
• Salt Poisoning: An abortion technique in which the amniotic fluid is replaced with salt water or another poison, thus deteriorating the child in the mother's womb.

Moral Principles in Medical Ethics

Personalistic Norm: Principle that maintains that a person is to be treated as a unique individual and never as a means to another's end.

Principle of Double Effect: An approach for evaluating the permissibility of an act that is morally good when that act causes an unintended evil effect. The conditions are:

1. Must be a good act (defending life).
2. The good cannot justify the means (intentionally).
3. Proportionate (the good must be equal to or outweigh the bad).

Stem Cell Research and Cloning

Embryonic Stem Cells Research: The creation of human embryos for the sole purpose of harvesting their stem cells before aborting them.

Adult Stem Cell Research: The harvest of stem cells from consenting adults for research purposes.

Human Cloning: To replicate the DNA of a human so as to make an identical genetic copy of the individual. Concerns include:

• Cloning for slave research.
• Cloning for genetic manipulation.
• Cloning for "superiority."

Euthanasia

Euthanasia: Any act or omission which of itself or by intention causes death in order to eliminate suffering.