Original scientific paper
BIOETHICAL THEMATIC APPRECIATION OF HUMAN DYING: DYING IN A CLEFT-STICK OF MEDICAL TECHNICISM AND ONTOANTHROPOLOGICAL “PERSONISM”
Tonči Matulić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb
Abstract
The article deals with the analysis of state of awareness of dying and
death in the context of contemporary medical science and clinical practice,
on the one hand, and contemporary philosophical-anthropological dispute
about the status of person, on the other. In the first part, the article
synthetically points at a string of reasons that have reduced the individual
awareness of sense of dying and death in society. It also presents some
negative consequences with regard to fundamental understanding of dying
and death. The second part analyses in details, though not fully, the state of
contemporary medicine as a branch of natural science operating together
with technique and its repercussions for the state of clinical and doctor’s
practice. There are two main repercussions of that state: primacy of
technique over ethics and primacy of material over spiritual. Such a state
leads to conclusion that the ideology of technicism, fed by the elements of
materialism, has come on the scene. The third part deals with bioethical
thematic appreciation of human dying; reflections focus on critical
analysis of negative effects of a radical clash with ontological integrity
of man, disintegrating that integrity into biological and spiritual-ethical
element. That phenomenon is syntagmaticly called onto-anthropological
“personism”, at it the term “personism” means to be delighted by the
person in the spirit of post-modern oblivion of the person’s metaphysics.
As a response to such a demolished onto-anthropology, which has its
roots in the ideology of technicism and materialism, the fourth part talks
about some dimensions of Christian vision of man, which is a trial to
repair what has been devastated in contemporary bioethical disputes.
Though a trial, it is an impulse for a correct approach to dying and death
worthy of man as a person, i.e. as a unique spiritual and physical being.
In the end, instead of conclusion, a short reflection on the essence of
Christian understanding of dying and death is presented.
Keywords
technique; technicism; medicine; “personism”; death; dying; man; spirit; ethics; Christianity
Hrčak ID:
24949
URI
Publication date:
21.3.2005.
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