Grzegorz HołubCorresponding authorORCID id

Personhood in Bioethics

Article
12/1 - Spring 2007, pages 157-175
Date of online publication: 15 juin 2007
Date of publication: 01 juin 2007

Abstract

The concept of personhood has been recently strongly criticized by some bioethicists. The present article aims at refuting these criticisms. In order to show how the notion of personhood operates in bioethics, two understandings of it proposed by an Italian bioethicist Maurizio Mori are sketched: a person as a part of the cosmological order and a person as an autonomous-like entity. It is argued that none of the proposed understandings is adequate. The cosmological concept perceives the person as a derivative of the empirical processes. The autonomous-like, in turn, conceives the person as a freely acting subject. This paper endeavours to prove that both conceptions are one-sided. In order to do that, the thought of German philosopher Robert Spaemann is deployed. He convincingly points out that the person must be considered from a so-called “modus existendi” stance. It means that to be a person is to possess a unique way of being. That being encompasses the material content (body) not as a casual factor but as an indispensable mean of expressing itself. The final thesis is that the person's being is man's life. Drawing upon such a conclusion, it is taken up a critical discussion with the views rejecting the usefulness of the concept.

Keywords

Cite this article

Hołub, Grzegorz. “Personhood in Bioethics.” Forum Philosophicum 12, no. 1 (2007): 157–75. doi:10.35765/forphil.2007.1201.11.

Bibliography

Agazzi, Evandro. Bioetica e persona. Milano: Franco Angeli, 1993.

Beauchamp, Tom L. “The Failure of Theories of Personhood.” In Personhood and Health Care, edited by David C. Thomasma, David N. Weisstub and Christian Hervé, 59–69. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Pub, 2001. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-2572-9_6.

Bayertz, Kurt, ed. Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1996. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-1590-9.

Doran, Kevin. “Person—A Key Concept for Ethics.” Linacre Quarterly 56, no. 4 (1989): 38–49.

Engelhardt Jr., H. Tristram. “Foundations, Persons, and the Battle for the Millennium.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 13 (1988): 387–391.

Engelhardt Jr., H. Tristram. “Medicine and the Concept of Person.”, In What Is a Person?, edited by Michael F. Goodman, 169–184. Clifton, NJ: Humana, 1988.

Engelhardt Jr., H. Tristram. “Il concetto di persona e il fondamento di un’autorita morale laica.” In Bioetica e persona, edited by Evandro Agazzi, 13–26. Milano: Franco Angeli, 1993.

Engelhardt Jr., H. Tristram. “Sanctity of Life and Menschenwürde: Can these Concept Help Direct the Use of Resources in Critical Care?” In Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity, edited by Kurt Bayertz, 201–219. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1996. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-1590-9_12.

Engelhardt Jr., H. Tristram. The Foundation of Bioethics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Evans, C. Stephen. Preserving the Person: A Look at the Human Sciences. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979.

Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale Sezione di Padova ed. Persona e personalismo. Aspetti filosofici e teologici. Padova: Gregoriana Libreria Editricie, 1992.

Goodman, Michael F., ed. What Is a Person? Clifton, NJ: Humana, 1988.

Gordijn, Bert. “The Troublesome Concept of the Person.” Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 20, no. 4 (1999): 347–359.

Hellsten, Sirkku Kristiina. “Towards an Alternative Approach to Personhood in the End of Life Questions.” Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 21, no. 6 (2000): 515–536. doi:10.1023/A:1026559716715.

Hołub, Grzegorz. “Bioethics and the Concept of Human Nature.” Salesianum 67 (2005): 547–564.

Honnefelder, Ludger. “The Concept of a Person in Moral Philosophy.” In Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity, edited by Kurt Bayertz, 139–160. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1996. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-1590-9_9.

Honnefelder, Ludger. “Bioethics and the Normative Concept of Human Selfhood.” Studia Ecologiae et Bioethicae 1 (2003): 199–212.

Kant, Immanuel. Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals. Translated by James W. Ellington. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993.

Kuhse, Helga, and Peter Singer, eds. A Companion to Bioethics. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.

Lizza, John. “Persons and Death: What’s Metaphysically Wrong with Our Current Statutory Definition of Death?” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 18, no. 4 (1993): 351–374.

Locke, John. Essay Concerning Human Understanding. In The Works of John Locke. Vol. 1. New York: Books For Libraries Press, 1969.

Klemke, E. D. “Moore, G. E.” In The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, edited by Robert Audi, 582–584. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1999.

Mori, Maurizio. “La bioetica, la risposta contemporanea alle questioni morali relative alla vita.” In Teorie etiche contemporanee, edited by Carlo Augusto Viano, 193–197. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1990.

Mori, Maurizio. “Contributo ad un chiaramento della nozione di ‘persona.’ Per un’analisi storica e concettuale della nozione ‘classica’ e di quella ‘recente’ di persona.” In Bioetica e persona, edited by Evandro Agazzi, 27–33. Milano: Franco Angeli, 1993.

Santinello, Giovanni. “Bilancio del personalismo cristiano.” In Persona e personalismo. Aspetti filosofici e teologici, edited by Facoltà Teologica dell’Italia Settentrionale Sezione di Padova, 75–96. Padova: Gregoriana Libreria Editricie, 1992.

Smith Iltis, Ana. “Bioethics as Methodological Case Resolution: Specification, Specified Principlism and Casuistry.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 25, no. 3 (2000): 271–284. doi:10.1076/0360-5310(200006)25:3;1-H;FT271.

Sokolowski, Robert. Introduction to Phenomenology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Spaemann, Robert. Osoby. O różnicy między czymś a kimś. Translated by Jarosław Merecki. Warsaw: Oficyna Naukowa, 2001.

Spaemann, Robert. Personen. Versuche über den Unterschied zwischen “etwas” und “jemand.” Stuttgart: Klee-Cotta 1996.

Thomasma, David C., David N. Weisstub, and Christian Hervé, eds. Personhood and Health Care. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2001. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-2572-9.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), resolution 24. “The Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.” October 19, 2005. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/bioethics/bioethics-and-human-rights/.

Tooley, Michael. Abortion and Infanticide. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.

Tooley, Michael. “Personhood.” In A Companion to Bioethics, edited by Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer, 117–126. Oxford: Blackwell, 2001.

Viano, Carlo Augusto, ed. Teorie etiche contemporanee. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1990.

Copyright