Finding God in All Things: Reflections on the Possibility of Mission Implementation at a Jesuit University in the Area of Faculty Research

In recent years, much progress has been made in explicating how the educational mission of a Jesuit university can be informed and guided by the specific Catholic and Jesuit identity of the university. In contrast, almost no progress has been made in academic mission implementation in the area of faculty research. This failure is due in part to the widespread conviction that such an implementation is incompatible with academic freedom and will harm the research enterprise. This article argues that exactly the opposite is true. Such implementation could liberate the research enterprise of the methodological and substantive restrictions imposed on it by the dominant secular research paradigm. It would free scientists to diversify their research methods, gain a much richer understanding of reality, and even find God

Pitfalls of Legal Regulation to Improve End-of-Life Care. The Example of Artificial Nutrition and Hydration

Biomedical advances nowadays enable physicians to keep patients hovering at the brink of death for many years. These new technologies have evoked challenging ethical dilemmas that test society’s moral resources. But some have been unwilling to patiently search for new moral wisdom, believing a bold stance is required and they are using legal means to achieve their goal. Attempts to legalize physician assisted suicide and euthanasia are one example, and the literature is replete with analyses of these practices. Far less attention has been paid to opposite attempts at legally enforcing life-sustaining medical interventions. In the mid 1990s, a group called Nebraskans for Humane Care sought to amend the Nebraska Constitution to require that nutrition and hydration is administered to any person and with any means available. In this article, the history behind and the text of the proposed amendment is critically analyzed, revealing the serious consequences that adoption of such legal regulation of medical treatment can have

“Just one animal among many?” Existential phenomenology, ethics, and stem cell research

Stem cell research and associated or derivative biotechnologies are proceeding at a pace that has left bioethics behind as a discipline that is more or less reactionary to their developments. Further, much of the available ethical deliberation remains determined by the conceptual framework of late modern metaphysics and the correlative ethical theories of utilitarianism and deontology. Lacking, to any meaningful extent, is a sustained engagement with ontological and epistemological critiques, such as with “postmodern” thinking like that of Heidegger’s existential phenomenology. Some basic “Heideggerian” conceptual strategies are reviewed here as a way of remedying this deficiency and adding to ethical deliberation about current stem cell research practices

Are Oral Health Disparities Merely Unfortunate or Also Unfair?: An Introduction to the Book.

Oral health is an intrinsic part of overall health. The mouth is part of the digestive and respiratory systems; it is essential to spoken communication and facial expression; in fact, toothaches are among the most severe and hence debilitating kinds of pain that a person can suffer. The economic cost of dental disease is staggering, equaling an annual loss of some 20 million days of work in the US alone. But far more disastrous is the personal cost for those suffering from these conditions. More than 100 million US citizens lack dental insurance. There is widespread consensus that the result i

The Preferential Option for the Poor.: A Social Justice Perspective on Oral Health Care.

Abstract Oral health is an intrinsic part of overall health. The mouth is part of the digestive and respiratory systems; it is essential to spoken communication and facial expression; in fact, toothaches are among the most severe and hence debilitating kinds of pain that a person can suffer. The economic cost of dental disease is staggering, equaling an annual loss of some 20 million days of work in the US alone. But far more disastrous is the personal cost for those suffering from these conditions. More than 100 million US citizens lack dental insurance. There is widespread consensus that the resulting disparities are most unfortunate. But are they also unfair? The dental profession and society at large appear much less eager to confirm the unfairness of this situation. After all, with unfairness comes the ethical obligation to attempt rectification of the situation. It is one thing to praise charitable voluntarism; it is quite another to insist on distributive justice. This book makes the case for justice in oral health. Renowned dental ethicists discuss various theoretical perspectives; national and international policy experts propose practical changes; and experienced dental educators outline innovative teaching modes. This book is not just food for thought; it is an invitation to critical discussion and creative planning

Overcoming Isolationism. Moral Competencies, Virtues and the Importance of Connectedness

Abstract Oral health is an intrinsic part of overall health. The mouth is part of the digestive and respiratory systems; it is essential to spoken communication and facial expression; in fact, toothaches are among the most severe and hence debilitating kinds of pain that a person can suffer. The economic cost of dental disease is staggering, equaling an annual loss of some 20 million days of work in the US alone. But far more disastrous is the personal cost for those suffering from these conditions. More than 100 million US citizens lack dental insurance. There is widespread consensus that the resulting disparities are most unfortunate. But are they also unfair? The dental profession and society at large appear much less eager to confirm the unfairness of this situation. After all, with unfairness comes the ethical obligation to attempt rectification of the situation. It is one thing to praise charitable voluntarism; it is quite another to insist on distributive justice. This book makes the case for justice in oral health. Renowned dental ethicists discuss various theoretical perspectives; national and international policy experts propose practical changes; and experienced dental educators outline innovative teaching modes. This book is not just food for thought; it is an invitation to critical discussion and creative planning