THE NATURE AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
AS THE FOUNDATION OF THE RIGHT TO LIFE.
THE CHALLENGES OF THE CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL CONTEXT
PROCEEDINGS OF THE VIII ASSEMBLY
OF THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR LIFE
Vatican City, 25-27 February 2002
Edited by :
JUAN DE DJOS VIAL CORREA
ELIO SGRECCIA
LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA
2003
INTRODUCTION
Presentation(Prof. JUAN DE DIOS VIAL CORREA E ELIO SGRECCIA)
Discourse of the Holy FatherJOHN PAUL II
Final Communiqué
CONTRIBUTION OF THE TASK-FORCE
H.E. Msgr. JULIÁN HERRANZ,The dignity of the human person and the law.
Rev. Prof. ANDRZEJ SZOSTEK,The anthropological issue: does absolute truth about the human being exist?
Prof. WOLFGANG WALDSTEIN,The ability of human mind to know the natural law.
Prof. SERGIO BELARDINELLI,"Nature" in a cosmological, biological, anthropological and ecological sense.
Prof. JOHN FINNIS,Nature and natural law in the contemporary philosophical and theological debates: some observations.
Rev. Prof. CHARLES MOREROD,Nature and natural law in Catholicism and Protestantism.
Rev. MARTIN RHONHEIMER,Natural moral law: moral knowledge and conscience.The cognitive structure of the natural law and the truth of subjectivity.
Prof. FRANCESCO VIOLA,Natural law: stability and development of its contents.
Prof. FRANCESCO D'AGOSTINO,Natural law, positive law and the new provocations of bioethics.
Prof. JOSEPH SEIFERT,The right to life and the fourfold root of human dignity.
Prof. MARIA DOLORES VILA- CORO,The rights of man and the right to life.
H.E. Msgr. CARLO CAFFARRA,Natural law: marriage and procreation.
JUAN DE DIOS VIAL CORREA,
ELIO SGRECCIA
PRESENTATION
It is becoming more and more urgent to address the theme of the existence of natural law and its definition in man with the necessary connection to its foundation, in human nature, and the resulting effects on natural law. First, because for a valid solution to all the problems being discussed today in the area of bioethics and bio-law, the preliminary question must be clarified as to whether or not an innate requirement exists in man as such on which the judgment can be based of the licitness or illicitness of scientific-experimental intervention on man.
The discussions on abortion, euthanasia, the right to treatments, experimentation on man - starting from the embryonic stage - and, more recently, on the use of embryonic stem cells and cloning, both reproductive and therapeutic, re-propose the definition of the beginning of human life, its end, and thus the ultimate question of what defines man and his nature, and on what his law is based. Even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the documents that appeal to the concept of "human rights", i.e. those inherent to man as such, are subject to this question.
Does evolutionism, as an interpretative theory of the history of the universe, and historical and sociological sensitivity still allow us to speak about a human nature which, in any case, defines man as anima et corpore unus, unus because of the spiritual soul that structures and enlivens him?
The anthropological question also conditions and grounds the ethical question about any intervention on man: What is man's true good, and what action done by the human individual or for the human individual is in conformity with his innate requirement?
In the same way, we ask ourselves on the juridical level: What law can achieve the common good in respect for the good of each one? In order to answer this question, human nature needs to be defined, its "objectivity" and its "knowability".
On the other hand, even dialogue between the different cultural currents can only be carried out on the basis of a search for a common foundation, the true good of man and the truth about man. If one speaks from the viewpoint of contractualism and utilitarianism, there is no common ground or objective values, but only the compromises based on the logic of interests, and every decision ends up being subordinated to the interests of the most powerful.
For this reason the discourse on natural moral law and natural law becomes a discourse on freedom and justice. To lose or conceal this discourse is to lay the premise for all kinds of prevarication and give free rein to the logic of the war of the most powerful against the weakest, especially in the biomedical sector where the human being is the object of destruction, experimentation and business.
To remove the foundations of thought on the questions of truth, the value of justice and right is to expose the entire social edifice to collapse.
Moreover, sensitivity to this foundation - natural moral law-natural law - is re-emerging after the collapse of the ideologies and the deluge of weak thought and moral relativism. A great aid for this reflection has come from the Second Vatican Council (in particular in Gaudium et Spes) and the Encyclicals Veritatis Splendor (August 6, 1997) and Fides et Ratio (September 14, 1998). As to the latter, we would like to mention its condemnation of nihilism, which also brings together the outcome of other relativist visions like utilitarianism and contractualism. Even before its conflict with the requirements and contents of the Word of God, "nihilism is a denial of the humanity and of the very identity of the human being. It should never be forgotten that the neglect of being inevitably leads to losing touch with objective truth and therefore with the very ground of human dignity. This in turn makes it possible to erase from the countenance of man and woman the marks of their likeness to God, and thus to lead them little by little either to a destructive will to power or to a solitude without hope. Once the truth is denied to human beings, it is pure illusion to try and set them free" (Fides et Ratio, 90).
At the conclusion of the General Assembly the proceedings of which are being published here, the Holy Father cited Gaudium et Spes and the Encyclical Veritatis Splendor and reminded us about the absolute need "to refer always to man's proper and primordial nature, the nature of the human person, that is the person himself in the unity of soul and body, in the unity of his spiritual and biological inclinations and of all the other specific characteristics necessary for the pursuit of his end" (Discourse to the Participants in the Eighth General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, L'Osservatore Romano, English weekly edition, N. 11, 13 March 2002, p. 4). In that same Discourse, after criticizing the alleged conflict between natural law and freedom, the Holy Father clarified and rejected the accusation of "fixism" and of "fixist essentialism" which is often brought against natural law because of a profound misunderstanding of the notion itself of natural law: to do good and avoid evil is to put into action a perfective dynamism that involves all of man and all men; it means proposing historical tasks that are ahead of and above humanity behind the sapiential wisdom of the moral law. Perhaps an erroneous analogy with the concept of nature proper to physical realities may have generated the accusation of "fixism", a word employed as a useful tool by those who support evolutionist concepts and moral relativism.
The right to life, which is at the center of the teaching of Evangelium Vitae (1995), could have neither impulse nor support if it were not anchored to the foundation of the truth about man and natural law.
In the Discourse mentioned above, the Holy Father recalled that "the rights of man, in fact, should refer to what man is by nature and by force of his own dignity and not to the expression of the subjective choices of those who are able to participate in social life or of those who can obtain the consensus of the majority"; then he stated that "among the fundamental rights of man, the Catholic Church claims for every human being the right to life as the primary right. She does it in the name of the truth about man and to protect his freedom, that cannot be sustained without respect for the right to life (EV, No. 6)".
In addition to the Holy Father's invaluable Discourse, the text we are presenting contains a series of contributions that are unified in an integrated treatment that includes three stages of reflection.
The reflection starts from reference to the dignity of the human person and goes on to study the anthropological question in depth intended as the essential truth about man and woman and their ability to know natural law. In the second stage, the text offers the necessary, in-depth studies on the meaning of "nature" in a cosmological, biological, anthropological and ecological sense.
This is followed by the chapters on: nature and natural law in the current philosophical and theological discussion; the relation between natural moral law, moral knowledge and conscience; natural law and positive law; the Protestant conception and the Catholic conception and the Protestant conception of nature and natural law. Lastly, the theme of the "right to life" is taken up in relation to the dignity of the person, human rights and the consequences that can be anticipated with regard to the family and procreation.
We are convinced that we have brought together and prepared a valid and stimulating contribution to a serious reflection in the moral, the juridical and, more broadly, the cultural sphere.
JOHN PAUL II
DISCOURSE TO THE MEMBERS
Dear and illustrious members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, once again we hold a meeting that is always for me a source of hope and joy.
I warmly and personally greet each one of you I want to thank your President, Juan de Dios Vial Correa for his kind words of homage on behalf of all of you. I want to greet your Vice-President, Bishop Sgreccia, for being the force behind the activity of your Academy.
This week you are participating in your eighth General Assembly and for this reason, coming together from many countries, you are conferring on a crucial subject, that relates to the general deliberation on the dignity of human life: "The nature and dignity of the human person as the foundation of the right to life. The challenges of the contemporary cultural context".
You have chosen to discuss one of the central points which is at the basis of any further reflection be it applied ethics in the area of bioethics, or socio-cultural reflections for the promotion of a new mentality which favours life.
For many contemporary thinkers, the concepts of "nature" and of "natural law" appear to apply only to the physical and biological world, or, as an expression of order in the cosmos, in scientific research or in the field of ecology. Unfortunately, in such a view, it becomes difficult to use natural law to mean human nature in a metaphysical sense and to use natural law for the moral order.
What makes it more difficult to see the depth of reality is the fact that our culture has greatly restricted the concept of creation, a concept that refers to the entire cosmic reality, and in a special way to man. We see in this change the influence of the weakening of confidence in reason, so much a part of contemporary philosophy as I pointed out in the Encyclical Fides et Ratio (n.61).
What is needed is a renewed thinking which returns to it original meaning, with all of its force, the anthropological significance of natural law, and of the related concept of natural right. In fact, we are discussing whether and how it is possible to "recognize" the distinguishing characteristics of the human being, which form the basis of his right to life, in its various historical formulations. Only on this basis, can there be a true dialogue and authentic collaboration between believers and non-believers.
Daily experience reveals the existence of a fundamental reality common to all human beings by which they can recognize each other as such. It is necessary to refer always "to man's proper and primordial nature, the 'nature of the human person' that is the person himself in the unity of soul and body, in the unity of his spiritual and biological inclinations and of all the other specific characteristics necessary for the pursuit of his end" (Veritatis Splendor, n.50; cf. also Gaudium et Spes, n.14).
This distinctive nature is the foundation for the rights of every human individual, who has the dignity dignity of a person from the moment of his conception. This objective dignity, that has its origin in God the Creator, is founded on the spirituality that belongs to the soul, but also extends to the corporeality that is an essential component. No one can take it away, but all must respect it in themselves and in others. The spiritual feature entails an equal dignity in all and the spiritual element remains in every stage of individual human life.
The recognition of such natural dignity is the foundation of the social order, as Vatican II reminds us: "Furthermore, while there are rightful differences between people, their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions" (Gaudium et Spes, n.29).
The human person with his reason, is capable of recognizing this profound and objective dignity of his own being, and the ethical requirements that derive from it. In other words, man can discern in himself the value and the moral requirements of his own dignity. It is a discernment that entails a discovery open to further refinement following the coordinates of the "historicity" so much a part of human knowing.