Theological perception of dignity of life and suffering – a Catholic contribution to bioethics Cover Image

Teološko poimanje dostojanstva života i patnje – katolički doprinos bioetici
Theological perception of dignity of life and suffering – a Catholic contribution to bioethics

Author(s): Ana Jeličić
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion
Published by: Naučnoistraživački institut »Ibn Sina«
Keywords: life; sanctity; suffering; disease; pain; person; dignity; responsibility; conscience; love

Summary/Abstract: A medical perspective of life through quality (health) and theological, through sanctity, are not diametrically opposite life perspective. They meet in bioethics, by integrating their starting points, visions and goals, mutually completing each other through a dialogue, for the sake of preserving life in all its forms. Thematic-scientific closeness of philosophy, medicine and theology was manifested in ancient times, and is current nowadays. Perception of life (through health and sanctity, bios and/or zoe), pain (as disease, that is, suffering), a human (as a ruler of the world or a responsible co-creator), a person (as a body and soul, that is, a God-like being), a model doctor (as a father, master of life or its guardian), patients (as sick people or as Christus patiens), a disease (as punishment for sins up to perceiving disease as a warning and call for a conversion) are just some of the meeting points of the aforementioned sciences that are also crossroads at which they miss each other. A theological concept of a person, health, suffering, life and dignity that was shaped in moral theology and theological anthropology (personalism) uses its specific aspects to enrich bioethics as a new orientation knowledge and pluriperspectivistic discipline which, by respecting certain sciences, encourages to cooperation and life that is a basic religious, but also a bioethical imperative.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 63
  • Page Range: 81-93
  • Page Count: 13
  • Language: Croatian