Everything technologically possible need not be ethically permissible, and for this we need a bioethics that is open to the transcendent, said a Vatican official.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, said this during a conference co-sponsored by the Vatican dicastery and the Acton Institute, titled “Health, Technology and Common Good.” It was held at the Pontifical Gregorian University on Friday.
In his lecture titled “The Future for Health Care: Putting Technology at the Service of Man,” the 74-year-old cardinal said: “We know that biomedical technology holds a great deal of promise in the areas of diagnosis and treatment of diseases.
“But we must also be aware of the fact that technology and medicine are only a part of the health care system and undue insistence on their capabilities may give more emphasis in meeting the demands of the providers than that of the human persons.”
Cardinal Lozano Barragán continued: “The ultimate criterion in the use of all technologies must be the good of man.
“In discussing the sciences of life and reflecting on the experimental sciences that manipulate life, one wonders about correct human behavior in relation to human life, deficiency in human life, increase in human life, improvement in human life, procedures to be followed to obtain this improvement and deviations to be avoided.
There are some people who believe that because Eve COULD eat the forbidden fruit that God must have intended her to eat it. I have never been able to accept that. The idea fights with too much of the remainder of Scripture. I think that the cardinal puts the logic and theology behind such an idea; God created more “can”s than “ought”s. Many of these we agree on – I can kill someone, but I ought not to do so. Some are more challenging; I can use contraceptives, but OUGHT I to do so? And then we are at Eve’s quandry; if it looks good, if it tastes good, if it promises health, wealth, and glory, it must BE good. She judged for herself and we know the result. Now Mankind is still trying to judge for himself and still comming up with rediculous results. How does one know a “can” from and “ought”?
Well. it’s about time someone ELSE is talking about what science and ethics means in this life. This is THE subject for the future, the one which Christianity will grasp and interpret, penetrate and digest, or be left in irrelevancy. I have already made the references to relevant texts so I won’t make them again. LM
I have long held the view that modern society is falling victim to the tyranny of the possible. As the bishop said, if it’s possible, its ethical.