Bioethics, family and Christian morality

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleBioetica, familia si morala crestina
3. Language term Romanian
4. lemma author Stavinschi, Alexandra
5. lemma category Ethics - Scientific theories and disciplines > Biology - Scientific theories and disciplines > Medicine - Modes of interaction > Conflict
6. lemma work Raduca, Vasile [Author]. Bioethics, family and Christian morality
7. lemma manifestations Studii teologice
8. Keywords bioethics - abortion - clones - fertilization - in vitro fertilisation - family - interdisciplinarity
9. Lemma body

   1. The article deals with a number of burning issues that Christians face today and which came as the result of the rapid development of science and technology. According to the author, the surrounding nature, the nature of things and even human nature, are no longer an open book in which scientists can decode a series of mysteries, but one where they can intervene, a book that can be rewritten. Nature has increasingly become subject to the power of man. The problem is that the world came to be defined by a bunch of people who are trained unilaterally, which in turn determines a certain attitude to what has been unilaterally defined. What he finds most worrying, is that the latest findings are not analysed in wider contexts, from an interdisciplinar perspective, and evaluated from the point of view of human life understood in all its complexity, not only in its biological aspect. Bioethics addresses the reality of life in a non-religious way, in that it does not take religious data as their starting point, it does not support its statements from the perspective of faith (although it does not exclude it either), but from the perspective of the generally human rational discourse and sometimes (sadly) from the concrete interests of a particular society. Modern secular society has largely accepted it precisely because it appears as separate from the religious morality. In a society dominated by utilitarian ethics, or where the state policy of procedural ethics has been adopted, bioethics will in turn be deeply influenced. Hence the risk that the rules imposed by bioethics could be rather contextual, although they affect man, whose specific structure is not at all circumstantial, but immutable (he remains man in any socio-cultural context he is placed). Based on this truth, the Christian moral norms can introduce elements in bioethics that expand its scope and give it authority. Bioethics is an interdisciplinary approach. It became necessary when the diagnosis of certain diseases and the decisions on their treatment could no longer be taken by the doctor or the patient, but by a team, including doctors, psychologists, biologists and social workers. The article presents the author’s views on three central topics in bioethics, concerning the human couple: family planning (birth control); fertilization of sterile couples and fetal health.