Situation Ethics, Moral Notions, and Moral Theology

Hauerwas, Stanley

doi:10.1177/002114007103800304

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“…While the "cause" of her death was technically her underlying disease, once the momentum of treatment began, death could not occur until a positive decision was made by the physicians to step out of the way. 9 7 This story is adapted from Ira Byock, Dying Well: Peace and Possibilities at the End of Life (New York: Riverhead Books, 1997), [26][27]. 8 See Katie Hafner, "In Ill Doctor, a Surprise Reflection of Who Picks Assisted Suicide," The New York Times, August 11, 2012, accessed November 15, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/health/policy/in-ill-doctor-a-surprisereflection-of-who-pic ks-assisted-suicide.html.…”

Section: "[A]n Emergency Code [Is] Called Over the Loudspeaker And A mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…26 The "moral object" names the objective, or intrinsic end of an action-the "end" determined not by the subject but by the very nature of the act. 27 Roman Catholic moral theology holds certain acts to be intrinsically and inescapably evil by virtue of their "moral object." 28 Following the Pauline principle that a good end may not be pursued by an evil means (cf.…”

Section: §24 Preliminary Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…See Catechism of the Catholic Church, 3.1.1.4. 27 So, for example, adultery is defined by its object of "having intercourse with someone who is not one's spouse or with the spouse of another." 28 "intrinsically evil," and (d) the evil effect is not itself the means by which the good effect is secured (i.e.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…132 For Heidegger, the human mode of being ("Dasein") is 130 Rahner is adamant that human life is "suspended between a genuine beginning and a genuine end" (27). In true existentialist form, he suggests the utter finality of death entails the "radical seriousness" of "this earthly life."…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The myth of the eternal return is just that, a myth. Human life is "truly historical, that is, unique, unrepeatable, of inalienable and irrevocable significance" (27). 131 Craigo-Snell, Silence, Love, and Death, 25.…”

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Burdened Agency and End-of-Life Ethics: A Theological Analysis

Pickell

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This dissertation highlights central changes that have arisen with respect to common experiences of dying in modern, Western, industrialized societies. It argues (in Chapter 1) that late-modern dying is marked by a phenomenon called "burdened agency," which means that individuals (patients, proxies, and health care professionals) are increasingly expected to make decisions about the nature and timing of death. Moreover, such decisions are experienced as especially burdensome in a highly-reflexive social context, such as our own, in which death and dying have been largely de-institutionalized. When social and cultural norms fail to provide guidance to the dying, individuals are forced to seek meaning in an intensely private, individualistic and reflexive way. But the conditions of our modern dyingincluding the social isolation of the elderly and dying, social taboos about discussing death, the changing disease burden and illness trajectories, societal assumptions regarding human suffering and the use of technology, and other institutional realities-generally serve as hindrances to such meaningmaking, and leave individuals in a precarious existential position as they seek to navigate the agency they so ambivalently possess.This dissertation further argues (in Chapter 2) that the most prevalent "scripts" for dying today, including the technological dying of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), hospice and palliative medicine, and physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, all have shortcomings which must be acknowledged. Additionally, each script reflects moral norms that are embedded in the "modern social imaginary." Interestingly, the practices of dying in our society reflect substantive notions about human personhood and moral agency that are characteristically modern, including the relationship of freedom and authenticity to human dignity, the affirmation of everyday life, and a commitment to avoidance of suffering. These notions seem self-evident to many today, but they also assume a mode of moral agency that is active, marked by control over nature and contingency. This view is hard to square with the eventuality of death.The central chapters of this dissertation explore and analyze three Christian perspectives on death and dying. As the predominant practices and discourses surrounding death and dying reflect latent views of human agency and personhood, so do theological notions of death reflect particular assumptions about what it means to be human and what it means to be a moral agent. Chapters 3-5 describe the relationship between death, dying, and human agency with respect to the tradition of Roman Catholic moral theology, 20 th century Swiss Protestant theologian Karl Barth, and the contemporary theological ethicist Stanly Hauerwas. Chapter 3 suggests that Roman Catholic moral theology, especially after Vatican II, encourages a "spirituality of martyrdom," which views death under the aspect of submission, and which sees such surrender as a "witness" to divine providence and goodness. Chapter 4 presents...

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Section: "[A]n Emergency Code [Is] Called Over the Loudspeaker And A mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: §24 Preliminary Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Burdened Agency and End-of-Life Ethics: A Theological Analysis

Pickell

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How I think Hauerwas thinks about theology

Larsen

2016

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This paper highlights two aspects of Stanley Hauerwas's thought: philosophical ethics, which consists of second-order methodological claims; and moral theology, which consists of first-order, local, unsystematic moral descriptions. I show how the philosophical ethics relates to the moral theology by proposing a set of rules that constitute a ‘grammar’ of Hauerwas's thought. These rules are asymmetrical in that later rules presuppose earlier rules but earlier rules do not presuppose later rules. Each rule corresponds to texts that Hauerwas recommends and relies upon. The first rule prioritizes MacIntyre's concept of non-foundational ‘practical wisdom’. The second rule, which draws on Aristotle, Wittgenstein, Anscombe and Kovesi to stress the impossibility of separating agent from act, influences the third rule that ethics is moral description. The fourth rule uses ‘postliberal’ theologians and draws on the liturgy alongside Barth and Yoder, in order to redescribe the shape of Christian life in liberal modernity.

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Situation Ethics, Moral Notions, and Moral Theology

Cited by 2 publications

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Burdened Agency and End-of-Life Ethics: A Theological Analysis

Burdened Agency and End-of-Life Ethics: A Theological Analysis

How I think Hauerwas thinks about theology

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