The Catholic Church in America, the Discipline of Bioethics, and the Culture of Life: Looking to the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae for Guidance

Abstract

In this paper, I will first briefly discuss why the Catholic Church has always had and continues to have such a great concern for bioethics or health-care ethics, while I also highlight the biblical roots of this concern. Secondly, I will describe some of the ways in which the Catholic Church in America has exercised a positive influence in the field of bioethics, or what was in the mid-twentieth century often called medical ethics. Thirdly, I will sketch how and why the Church has to a large extent lost this influence, tracing how secularization both inside and outside the Church contributed to the destruction of the so-called "Catholic ghetto" and to the assimilation of ideas from the culture that were often alien to the Gospel and sound moral reasoning. Finally, I will offer some general reflections on how the Church can regain her influence in this area— especially with the goal in mind of building a culture of life in American society— and how Catholic scholars in particular can contribute to this effort by following the lead of the late Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical on bioethics, Evangelium vitae, whose twentieth anniversary is fast approaching.