Catholic Reflections for an Updated Donum Vitae Instruction: A New Catholic Challenge in a Post-Christian Europe

On February 22, 1987, the Congregation for the Doctrine of theFaith published the Donum Vitae Instruction. Twenty years later,on February 22, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI asked for an updateof this Instruction. According to the Donum Vitae Instructionof 1987, the principle of the holiness of life imposes respectfor human persons from the very beginning of human life. Inthese past 20 years, new medical techniques have raised freshethical issues that are to be addressed by the Roman CatholicChurch Magisterium. The Roman Catholic Church, in its updateof the Instruction planned for 2007, will have to explain howcivil law is to be regulated according to the fundamental normsof the moral law. The moral message of the new Donum Vitae (justas in the 1987 version) will be to affirm the substance of humanjustice: respect for human life, as expressed in the resolvenot to infringe on, or to protect such life. Even in a post-ChristianEurope, this theological message can be understood if it istrue that Europe is marked by the principle of the absoluteprotection of human life.     

“人体器官移植工作体系”框架的初步构想及其伦理使命

借鉴国内外相关成功经验,结合我国实际情况,对“人体器官移植工作体系”的构成以及各系统职能进行初步探讨。研究了该体系在阻止人体器官商业化、提高人体移植器官分配的公平高效性等方面发挥的作用。     

A Spirituality of the Desert for Education: The Call of Justice Beyond the Individual or Community

This paper argues for an alternative notion of spirituality for education, based on Theo de Boer’s idea of a spirituality of the desert. Rather than depicting an inner, additional region named the spiritual, spirituality here is thought of as a discourse that depicts the everyday world in a particular way. In dialogue with David Purpel’s analysis, the paper argues for a notion of spirituality that is located in an ongoing oscillation between ‘the individual’ and ‘the community.’ This oscillation turns out to be the call of justice. This analysis helps understand classroom dynamics differently, providing a place of critique for current practices.

公平感对社会认知的影响:经济因素的调节作用

目的及方法:基于中国综合社会调查2010年数据,采用多层结构方程模型,探究中国民众公平感对社会认知的作用,及经济因素在其中的调节效应。研究结果:第一,公平感越高,则社会冲突感越低,外在政治效能感越高,越倾向于对社会不平等进行内部归因,即对于社会的整体认知更加积极; 第二,经济因素能调节公平感与社会不平等内归因的关系,具体而言,经济水平越低,则公平感对于社会不平等的内部归因正向预测作用越大。     

Freedom,Love, and Justice

This article starts from love as being a fundamental value, guiding modes of behaviour that establish a reliable framework and basis for the recognition of the rights and dignity of everyone in the community. The affirmation of justice and freedom based on love leads to corrective and transformative action in cases where life is threatened and rights are being violated. Drawing on the experience and witness of Martin Luther King Jr, the article underlines that love empowers the oppressed to stand up and becomes a moral imperative for change, against the background of the many forces promoting conflict and violence, division, and polarization. The power of love is a message to the world, to the powerful, and to the powerless – to all who long for a different reality from what we see in today’s world. This needs to be expressed in the quest for the unity of the church and the unity of humankind, serving the sustainability and unity of God’s creation.     

组织公正感研究进展

章先介绍了公正及公正感的概念,进而分析了组织公正感的概念。国外组织公正感的研究可分成3个阶段,首先由Adams提出分配公平,之后Thibaut、Leventhal等提出程序公正,最后Bies等提出相互作用公正。尽管国外对组织公正感研究比较广泛,但对公正感的结构及测量方法还存在分歧,有单因素理论、双因素理论、三因素理论和四因素理论。     

SARS反思:我国卫生资源宏观分配中存在的几个问题

此次应对SARS的历程昭示我们,我国卫生资源宏观分配存在严重问题。主要表现在：政府卫生总投入严重不足;政府卫生资源在治疗和预防之间的再分配不合理;政府卫生资源的城乡分布极不均衡。我国应该从这次对抗SARS的战役中吸取教训,努力改变这种不合理的局面,提高我国应对各种疾病特别是各种传染病的能力,增进我国人民特剐是农民的健康水平。     

The relevance of Rawls' principle of justice for research on cognitively impaired patients

An ethical conflict arises when we must performresearch in the interest of future patients,but that this may occasionally injure theinterests of today's patients.In the case of cognitively impaired persons, thequestion arises whether it is compatible withhumane healthcare not only to treat, but alsoto use these patients for research purposes.Some bioethicists and theologians haveformulated a general duty of solidarity, alsopertaining to cognitively impaired persons, as ajustification for research on these persons. Ifone examines this thesis from the theory ofjustice according to John Rawls, it is revealedthat such a duty of solidarity cannotnecessarily be extrapolated from Rawls'conception of justice. This is at least true ofRawls' difference principle, because accordingto the difference principle only those measuresare justifiable which serve the interest of therespective least well off. Those measures whichwould engender additional injury for the leastwell off could not be balanced by any utilityaccording to Rawls.However, John Rawls' difference principleis subordinate to the first principle,which is that each person has an equalright to the most extensive basic libertycompatible with the same liberty for others.These primary goods are determined by thefreedom and integrity of the person.This integrity of decisionally impaired personswould be in danger if one would abstain fromresearch and thus forego the increase inknowledge related to their disease. Thus onecould conclude, at least from Rawls' firstprinciple, that society must take on a duty toguarantee the degrees of freedom forcognitively impaired persons and thus alsosupport the efforts for their healing.     

Ethical Issues in Gestational Surrogacy

The introduction of contraceptive technologies hasresulted in the separation of sex and procreation. Theintroduction of new reproductive technologies (mainlyIVF and embryo transfer) has led not only to theseparation of procreation and sex, but also to there-definition of the terms mother and family.For the purpose of this essay, I will distinguishbetween:1. the genetic mother – the donor of the egg;2. the gestational mother – she who bears and gives birth to the baby;3. the social mother – the woman who raises the child.This essay will deal only with the form of gestationalsurrogacy in which the genetic parents intend to bethe social parents, and the surrogate mother has nogenetic relationship to the child she bears anddelivers. I will raise questions regarding medicalethical aspects of surrogacy and the obligation(s) ofthe physician(s) to the parties involved. I will arguethat the gestational surrogate is “a womb to rent,”that there is great similarity between gestationalcommercial surrogacy and organ transplant marketing.Furthermore, despite claims to freedom of choice andfree marketing, I will claim that gestationalsurrogacy is a form of prostitution and slavery,exploitation of the poor and needy by those who arebetter off. The right to be a parent, although notconstitutional, is intuitive and deeply rooted.However, the issue remains whether this rightoverrules all other rights, and at what price to theparties involved. I will finally raise the followingprovocative question to society: In the interim periodbetween today's limited technology and tomorrow'sextra-corporeal gestation technology (ectogenesis),should utilizing females in PVS (persistent vehetativestate) for gestational surrogacy be sociallyacceptable/permissible – provided they have leftpermission in writing?     

Liberalism and the Privatised Family: The Legacy of Rousseau

This article argues that the intellectual legacy of Rousseau is at the root of the failure of 20th century egalitarian theorists such as Rawls and Dworkin to engage intellectually with feminist theorists working within the liberal tradition. Through an extended critique of Rousseau’s delineation of the relationship between liberal citizenship and the private family, it argues that the failure of such liberal theorists to take gender hierarchy seriously is a consequence of their attempt to place the private family outside the sphere not only of politics, but also of justice.