The Christian Notion of Person and the Comatose Patient

Articles by Fletcher Joseph , Tristram Engelhardt H. , Pucetti Roland in Beauchamp Tom L. , and Walters LeRoy (eds.) Contemporary Issues in Bioethics (Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1982) pp. 87–116.

May William E. “The Vatican Declaration on Sexual Ethics and The Moral Methodology of Vatican Council II,” Linacre Quarterly, v. 52, 2, May, 1985, pp. 116–129.

Ratzinger Joseph Cardinal “Der Mensch zwischen Reproduktion und Schopfung: theologische Fragen zum Ursprung des mensehlichen Lebens,” Internationale Katholische Zeitschrift 18, Jan., 1989, pp. 61–71.

See his early Lublin lectures (1958-1959) in Love and Responsibility. (London: Collins, 1981); The Acting Person, trans. Potocki Andre , (Boston: Reidel Publishing Co., 1979); Apostolic Exhortation, “Christifideles Laici,” in Origins, v. 18, 35, Feb. 9, 1989, pp. 578-580.

For the metaphysical concepts explained in this section, cf. Owens Joseph An Elementary Christian Metaphysics (Houston: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1985); William A. Wallace, The Elements of Philosophy (New York: Alba House, 1977); Herman Reith, The Metaphysics of St. Thomas Aquinas (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1958).

Summa Theologica I, q. 29, art. 3, reply.

Schmitz Kenneth L. “The Geography of the human person,” Communio 13, Spring, 1986, p. 29.

“Videmus duplicem status non confusum sed conjunctum in una persona Deum et hominem Jesum,” Aversus Praxeam, 27, 11, cited in Hans Urs von Balthasar, “On the concept of the person,” Communio 13, Spring, 1985, p. 21.

“Person (in Theology),” Dorenkemper M. J. in The New Catholic Encyclopedia v. IX (New York: Mcgraw-Hill Book Co., 1967) p. 168.

Balthasar von p. 19.

ST I, q. 29, art. 4, reply 3.

ST I, q. 29, art. 4, reply 3.

Balthasar von p. 18.

Camelot P. Th. “La théologie de l'image de Dieu,” Revue des sciences philosophiques et theologiques, 1956, pp. 443–471.

Walgrave J. H. “Personalisme et anthropologie chrétienne,” Gregorianum v. 65, 2-3, 1984, p. 445.

Staniloae Dumitrou “Image, likeness, and deification in the human person,” Communio 13, Spring, 1986, p. 68.

ST I, q. 93, art. 7.

Westermann Claus Genesis 1-11, a Commentary, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984), p. 158.

“Ebenbild,” Schilling O. in Bibliotheologisches Worterbuch (Styria: Joannes Bauer Verlag, 1962), p. 201.

Westermann pp. 150–151.

Camelot p. 456.

Schonborn Cristoph “L'homme créé par Dieu: le fondement de la dignité de l'homme,” Gregorianum, v. 65, 2-3, 1984, pp. 345–346.

Schmitz p. 36.

Felice Carlo “Sustained Causation and the Substantial Theory of the Self,” International Philosophical Quarterly v. 26, 2, 1985, pp. 137–145.

Reichmann J. B. The Philosophy of the Human Person, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1985), p. 211.

Connell Desmond “Substance and the Inferiority of Being,” Neue Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie, 25 (1983), pp. 68–85.

Ashley Benedict , and O'Rourke Kevin Health Care Ethics, A Theological Analysis, (St. Louis: The Catholic Hospital Association, 1977), p. 11.

For the literature see nn. 8 and 9, 19 to 21 in Shannon Thomas A. , and Walter James J. “The PVS Patient and the Foregoing/Withdrawing of Medical Nutrition and Hydration,” Theological Studies, v. 49, 4, Dec., 1988, pp. 623–647. *The comatose patient we are considering here is not reliant on life-support systems.

“Vatican Declaration on Euthanasia,” in Origins v. 10, 10, Aug. 14, 1980, p. 156.

Mullooly John P. M.D. “Ordinary/Extraordinary Means and Euthanasia,” Linacre Quarterly, v. 2, 54, May, 1987, p. 53; John R. Connery, “Quality of Life,” Origins, v. 1, 53 (Feb., 1986), p. 31; Shannon, p. 643.

Fletcher Joseph “Indicators of Humanhood: A Tentative Profile of Man,” in Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, pp. 90–93.

Shannon p. 645.

New Jersey State Catholic Conference Brief, “Providing Food and Fluids to Severely Brain-Damaged Patients,” in Origins v. 16, 32, Jan. 22, 1987, pp. 582, 584.

Johnstone Brian V. “The Sanctity of Life, the Quality of Life and the New ‘Baby Doe’ Law,’ Linacre Quarterly, v. 2, 53, Aug., 1985, p. 261; see also John R. Connery, “Quality of Life,” pp. 26-33.

Bishop Gelineau's statement, “On Removing Nutrition and Water from Comatose Woman,” in Origins v. 17, 32, Jan. 21, 1988, pp. 546–547.