Infertility: A Crossroad of Faith, Medicine, and Technology brings together a diverse group of clinicians, theologians, and philosophers to examine the use of reproductive technologies in the light of the Roman Catholic moral tradition and recent teaching. The book provides relevant background information (e.g. Donum Vitae from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) as it explores the psychological, social, legal, and moral contexts of reproductive medicine. This book is Volume 3 of Catholic Studies in Bioethics in the series Philosophy and Medicine.

This book explores an undeveloped area in postmodern thought:  organizational ethics.  Ethical debates and analyses usually focus on a particular act or action, an actor, and/or how a secular society should address any of those particular persons or events. In the Post Modern age, ethical decisions and policies are characterized by moral and cultural pluralism.  However, there is a second factor that complicates ethical and policy decisions even further.  This book argues that in the postmodern age ethical decisions often need to be understood as part of the decision making of organizations and bureaucracies.  Organizational decisions often have direct bearing on the choices made by individuals.  Two areas that exemplify postmodern issue are the areas of health care and education.  For example the decision making of Admissions Officers in American higher education, are influenced by decisions that have been made by the university about the size of the class and the diversity of the class.  Health Care organizations make policy decisions that affect every aspect of a patient’s care from admission to treatment and the types of care that are or are not offered. Both education and health care are the object of the significant investment of resources, both areas are value laden in postmodern, pluralistic societies, and yet we do not have a comprehensive method to understand them or evaluate them. This book is of interest to bioethicists, physicians, nurses, health care policy students, educational policy experts, students and government regulators.

Critical Choices and Critical Care brings together the traditional reflections on ordinary and extraordinary means with Catholic social thought. It examines the difficult questions on the allocation of high technology resources used in intensive care medicine. The book also provides relevant background information (e.g. statements by the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). It is accessible to theologians, philosophers, and health care professionals.

"Evangelium Vitae," or "The Gospel of Life," Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical, addresses practical moral questions that touch on the sacredness of human life: abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, and capital punishment. Tackling major moral and cultural ideas, the Pope urged "all men and women of good will" to embrace a "culture of life" instead of the prevailing "culture of death." In this book, scholars from a wide range of disciplines -- law, medicine, philosophy, and theology -- and various religious perspectives discuss and interpret the Pope's teachings on these complex moral issues.

The opening essays establish a context for the encyclical in the moral thought of John Paul II and examine issues of methodology and ecclesiology. A second group considers the themes of law and technology, which are crucial to the way the encyclical views the specific matters of life and death. The final section turns to the specific topics of abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, medical experimentation, and capital punishment.

Seeking to promote discussion between the ideas of the encyclical and other points of view, this volume does not attempt to endorse "Evangelium Vitae" but rather to illustrate its relevance to both private choice and public policy. It will serve as a foundation for further dialogue and allow others to approach the pontiff's thought with new awareness and insight.