- See Paul Haffner, Towards a Theology of the Environment (Leominster: Gracewing, 2008), 71–105.
- For an excellent and thorough examination of this debate, see President’s Council on Bioethics, Human Dignity and Bioethics (Washington, D.C.: President’s Council on Bioethics, 2008). See especially, in this volume, Adam Schulman, “Bioethics and the Question of Human Dignity,” 3–18; Daniel Sulmasy, “Dignity and Bioethics: History, Theory and Selected Applications,” 469–504.
- See Peter Singer, Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995); H. Tristam Engelhardt Jr., The Foundations of Bioethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
- See Arthur Caplan, “Dignity Is a Social Construct” (December 24, 2003), http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/327/7429/1419#44646; Ruth Macklin, “Dignity Is a Useless Concept,” British Medical Journal 327 (2003): 1419–1420.
- See, for instance, Francis Fukuyama, Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (New York: Picador, 2002); Jürgen Habermas, The Future of Human Nature (Cambridge: Polity, 2003).
- See Mary Ann Glendon, “Foundations of Human Rights: The Unfinished Business,” American Journal of Jurisprudence 1 (1999): 1–14.
- Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, instruction Dignitas personae (On Certain Bioethical Questions) (2008), n. 1.
- Ibid., n. 6.
- Ibid., n. 7.
- For a complete development of Catholic thought on human dignity and human rights, see International Theological Commission, Propositions on Dignity and Rights of the Human Person (1983; Maynooth: Furrow Trust, 1985).
- See Robert P. Kraynak, “Human Dignity and the Mystery of the Human Soul,” in President’s Council on Bioethics, Human Dignity and Bioethics, 63.
- See Haffner, Towards a Theology of the Environment, 77–81.
- Kraynak, “Human Dignity and the Mystery of the Human Soul,” 65. See B.F. Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity (New York: Bantam Vintage, 1972).
- The International Academy of Humanism, “Declaration in Defense of Cloning and the Integrity of Scientific Research,” Free Inquiry 17.3 (Summer 1997), 11–12.
- Patricia S. Churchland, “Human Dignity from a Neurophilosophcial Perspective,” in President’s Council on Bioethics, Human Dignity and Bioethics, 116.
- Holmes Rolston III, “Human Uniqueness and Human Dignity,” in President’s Council on Bioethics, Human Dignity and Bioethics, 148.
- See Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
- Margaret Somerville, “Aping Their Betters,” Mercator Net (December 5, 2008), http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/aping_their_betters.
- See Marie George, “Moral Sense and Non-Sense,” Mercator Net (February 13, 2008), http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/moral_sense_and_non_sense; Steven Pinker, “The Moral Instinct,” New York Times, January 13, 2008, 32–37, 52–58.
- Joseph Fletcher, Humanhood: Essays in Biomedical Ethics (New York: Prometheus Books, 1979), 85.
- See James H. Hughes, Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future (Cambridge, MA: Westview Press, 2004); idem, “Embracing Change with All Four Arms: A Post-Humanist Defense of Genetic Engineering,” Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 6 (1996): 94–101.
- See Gregory E. Pence, Who’s Afraid of Human Cloning? (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998).
- See Gregory Stock, Redesigning Humans: Choosing Our Genes, Changing Our Future (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003).
- Lee Silver, Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World (New York: Avon, 1998), 277.
- Vatican Council II, Gaudium et spes (1965), n. 24.
- See Haffner, Towards a Theology of the Environment, 75.
- G. Cole, “Singer on Christianity,” in Rethinking Peter Singer, ed. G. Preece (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 95–105.
- P. Singer, Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals (New York: Random House, New York, 1975).
- Quoted in Mark Oppenheimer, “Who Lives? Who Dies? The Utility of Peter Singer,” Christian Century 14 (2002): 24–29.
- Wesley J. Smith, “Why We Call Them Human Rights,” The Weekly Standard 14.10 (November 24, 2008), http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/823qaarg.asp.
- See “Universal Declaration on Animal Rights,” in Haffner, Towards a Theology of the Environment, 315–318; and http://www.greatapeproject.org/en-US/oprojetogap/Declaracao/declaracao-mundial-dos-grandes-primatas.
- Smith, “Why We Call Them Human Rights.”
- See Gautam Naik, “Switzerland’s Green Power Revolution: Ethicists Ponder Plants’ Rights,” Wall Street Journal Online (October 10, 2008), http://online/.wsj.com/article/SB122359549477921201.html.
- Smith, “Why We Call Them Human Rights.”
- This claim has been proven false in recent years. Humanity, especially Western societies, is entering a demographic winter. See M. Schooyans, The Demographic Crash: From Fatalism to Hope (1999; St. Louis: The Central Bureau, 2001); Philip Longman, The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do about It (New York: Basic Books, 2004); Ben J. Wattenberg, Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2004).
- See Haffner, Towards a Theology of the Environment, 93.
- Alan Gregg, “A Medical Aspect of the Population Problem,” Science 121 (1955): 682, cited in Charles Rubin, “Human Dignity and the Future of Man,” in President’s Council on Bioethics, Human Dignity and Bioethics, 162.
- Pope Benedict XVI, encyclical Caritas in veritate (2009), n. 51, original emphasis.
The Linacre Quarterly
Volume 77, 2010 - Issue 1