What is it that worries us about cloning? Why do technologies such as in vitro fertilization threaten the family? How does modern biological science threaten the very life it studies? These are important questions that demand a careful examination of science, technology, and the dignity of the human person. The March 2002 symposium Human Dignity and Reproductive Technology brought together philosophers, theologians, scientists, lawyers, and scholars from across the United States to discuss these questions. The essays of this book are the contributions of the symposium's participants. These essays do not simply catalogue recent ethical debates concerning reproduction technologies. Rather, they examine how these technologies impact human life and its innate, undeniable dignity. In accordance with the tradition of the Catholic Church, human dignity is examined from the perspectives of both faith and reason so that the good of technology may promote the dignity of the human person.

The purpose of this valuable book is to consider recent cultural trends in bioethics from a Catholic perspective. The first section describes modern cultural notions of health and human suffering. It examines the meaning of suffering in the contemporary world and relates this discussion to the ethical issues surrounding abortion, euthanasia, and the competing conceptions of health. The second section discusses the philosophical origins of the culture war through an examination of the problematic bases of various forms of moral relativism and its inability to guide moral action. The third section contextualizes this abstract discussion in the current political and legal debate on biotechnology, marriage, and the family. Bioethics is intended for a lay audience interested in understanding bioethical issues from a Catholic perspective.