Scientific and Philosophical Expertise: An Evaluation of the Arguments
on "Personhood"
Linacre Quarterly February 1993, 60:1:18-46
[Edited, September 20, 1996]
(Reproduced with Permission)
Notes
56. See, e.g., Richard McCormick, S.J., "Who or what is
the preembryo?", paper presented at the Andre E. Hellegers Lecture
(Washington, D.C. Georgetown University: May 17, 1990) (pre-publication
manuscript); see also, McCormick, "Who or what is the Preembryo?",
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 1(1), 1991, p. 3; also see reference
to Lejeune, p. 14, note 53 supra.
57. Lejeune, 1989, p. 14; also, Bruce Carlson, Human
Embryology and Developmental Biology (St. Louis, MO: Mosby), p. 33.
58. For example, Grobstein and McCormick, Ford, Wallace
infra.
59. Lejeune, 1989, p. 17, 20; also see article by
Mavilio, where he explains that the modulation of the methylation pattern
represents a key mechanism for regulating the expression of human globin
genes during embryonic, fetal and adult development in humans. Mavilio et
al, "Molecular mechanisms of human hemoglobin switching: selective
undermethylation and expression of globin genes in embryonic, fetal and
adult erythroblasts", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA,
80(22) (1983): p. 690;7-11; see also Alan E.H. Emery, Elements of Medical
Genetics (New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1983), p. 103.
60. See references on "cascading" in note
49, supra;
also "transgenic mice" in note 30, supra.
61. Antoine Suarez, "Hydatidiform moles and teratomas
confirm the human identity of the preimplantation embryo", Journal of
Medicine and Philosophy 15 (1990): p. 631.
62. McCormick, p. 3, note 56 supra.
63. Ronan O'Rahilly and Fabiola Muller, Human
Embryology and Teratology (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994), footnote
p. 55: "the ill-defined and inaccurate term pre-embryo ... is not
used in this book". See also C. Ward Kischer, "Human development and
reconsideration of ensoulment", Linacre Quarterly (Feb. 1993),
60:1:57-63; also Kischer (1992, 1993, 1994) in note 4 supra.
64. McCormick, p. 3, note 56 supra.
65. Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human
(Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1982), p. 33, 62-63, 68, 111, 127; Ronan
O'Rahilly (1994), p. 51; William Larsen, Human Embryology (New York:
Churchill Livingstone, 1993), p. 19. 33; Bruce Carlson, Human Embryology
and Developmental Biology (St. Louis, MO: Mosby), pp. 34-35. See also
see K. Chada et al, "An embryonic pattern of expression of a human fetal
globin gene in transgenic mice", Nature (1986), 319:6055:685-9; also
G. Migliaccio et al, "Human embryonic hemopoiesis. Kinetics of progenitors
and precursor underlying the yolk sac - liver transition", Journal of
Clinical Investigation 78(1), 1986: 51-60.
66. McCormick, p. 4, note 56 supra.
67. Karen Dawson, "Segmentation and moral status", in
Peter Singer et al, Embryo Experimentation (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1990), p. 58; see also Keith Moore (1982), p. 133.
68. Dame Mary Warnock, Report of the Committee of
Inquiry into Human Fertilization and Embryology (London: Her Majesty's
Stationary Office, 1984), p. 17; National Institutes of Health: Report of
the Human Embryo Research Panel (Washington, D.C.: NIH, Sept. 27, 1994),
pp. 45ff.
69. E.g., see Larsen (1993), p. 1: "... gametes which
will unite at fertilization to initiate the embryonic development of a new
individual [i.e., the zygote]"; Kischer (1993), note 63 supra; A.
Fisher, "Individuogenesis and a book by Fr. Ford", Anthropotes
(1991), 2:199f.
70. C. Ward Kischer, "Human development and
reconsideration of ensoulment" Linacre Quarterly (Feb. 1993),
60:1:57-63.
71. During taped participation at the "Ethics in
Research Conference", FIDIA (Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., April
1991).
72. E.g., John A. Robertson, "Extracorporeal
embryos and the abortion debate", Journal of Contemporary Health Law and
Policy 2:53:53-70 (1986). Significantly, he used this argument while
representing the father in the Davis vs Davis frozen human
embryo appeal -- and won the appeal.
73. National Institutes of Health: Report of the
Human Embryo Research Panel, September 27, 1994; pp. 47, 50, 51;
available free of charge from Division of Science Policy Analysis and
Development, National Institutes of Health, Bldg. 1, Room 218, 9000
Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892; phone 301-496-1454. Interestingly, these
N.I.H. Recommendations referenced their "human" embryology chart and their
list of scientific definitions on the book by Australians Peter Singer (a
philosopher), Helga Kuhse (an ethicist), Kasimba (a lawyer) and Karen Dawson
(a geneticist). In that book, [Human Experimentation, (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1990)] the chart and scientific definitions have
no references. There was no human embryologist on that N.I.H. Panel. See
also, D.N. Irving, "Testimony before the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel",
Linacre Quarterly (1994), 61:82-89.
74. See personal communications from different
pharmaceutical companies to Judie Brown, President, American Life League,
April 30, 1996, and August 30, 1996. Also used and defended recently in T.V.
debates by representatives of The Center For Reproductive Law and Policy:
Cable Network New York, "News Talk Television", July 2, 1996, 11 A.M.; CBS
News, "Up to the Minute", July 1, 1996, 3 and 5 A.M. These advocates
redefined several embryological terms, including "abortifacient =
contraception", "pregnancy begins at implantation", and that we don't know
when the life of a human being begins because that is a philosophical or
theological question. They also claimed that the American Medical
Association and the World Health Organization supported their claims --
which they do not.
75. Norman Ford, When Did I Begin? (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 298.
76. Ibid., p. 156.
77. Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human (1982),
p. 1.
78. William A. Wallace, "Nature and human nature as the
norm in medical ethics:, in Edmund D. Pellegrino, John P. Langan and John
Collins Harvey (eds.), Catholic Perspectives on Medical Morals
(Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishing, 1989), 23-53.
79. Ibid., p. 30.
80. Aristotle, Metaphysica VI, 1029 a.20, Ross
(trans.), in Klubertanz, Philosophy of Being (1963), p. 115 (note
27); for Aquinas see ST, Ia.q6, a.1., ad.3, p. 330; also Commentary on
Aristotle's Metaphysics, Book VIII, lect. 1 (ed. Cathala, No. 1686), in
Klubertanz (1963), p. 100, and 124-125.
81. Klubertanz (1963), p. 100.
82. Thomas Aquinas, ST, Ia.q.45, a.4, ad.1 and 2, p.
235; also, Ia.q6, a.1., ad.3, p. 330; also Ia q.65, a.3, ans., p. 327; also
ibid, a.4, sed contra, p. 327; also ibid, ans., p. 328-329; also, Ia.q.76,
a.7, ans., 381.
83. Aristotle, Categories, in Ross (1985), p.
20-21; Thomas Aquinas, The Division and Method of the Sciences
(Mauer, ed., 1986), pp. 37-38.
84. Wallace (1989), p. 43-44.
85. Ibid., p. 33.
86. D. Gareth Jones, "Brain birth and personal
identity", Journal of Medical Ethics 15(4), 1989, 178.
87. Howard W. Jones and Charlotte Schroder, "The
process of human fertilization: implications for moral status", Fertility
and Sterility 48(2), Aug. 1987: p. 192.
88. G. Gareth Jones (1989), p. 177.
89. See arguments relying on this fact by Singer and
Engelhardt, infra
90. Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy,
in John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff and Dugald Murdoch (trans.), The
Philosophical Writings of Descartes (New York: Press Syndicate of the
University of Cambridge, 1984), 2nd Meditation, 12ff.
91. John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, A.D. Woozley (ed.) (London: Fontana/Collins, 1964), Book
Two, Ch. XXXI, pp. 211-12.
92. H.T. Engelhardt, The Foundations of Bioethics
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 111.
93. Michael Tooley, "Abortion and infanticide", in
Marshall Cohen et al (ed.), The Rights and Wrongs of Abortions, (New
Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1974), pp. 59, 64.
94. Helga Kuhse and Peter Singer, "For sometimes
letting - and helping - die", Law, Medicine and Health Care 3(4),
1986: pp. 149-153; also Kuhse and Singer, Should the Baby Live? The
Problem of Handicapped Infants (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985),
p. 138; Peter Singer and Helga Kuhse, "The ethics of embryo research",
Law, Medicine and Health Care 14(13-14), 1987. For one reaction, see
Gavin J. Fairbairn, "Kuhse, Singer and slippery slopes", Journal of
Medical Ethics 14 (1988), p. 134.
95. Peter Singer, "Taking life: abortion", in
Practical Ethics (London: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 118.
96. Peter Singer, "Taking life: abortion" (1981), p.
118.
97. Richard G. Frey, The ethics
of the search for benefits: Animal experimentation in medicine", in Raanan
Gillon (ed.), Principles of Health Care Ethics (New York: John Wiley
& Sons, 1994), pp. 1067-1075.
For some arguments counter, see: Adil E. Shamoo
and D.N. Irving, "The ethics of research on the mentally disabled", chapter
in D.C. Thomasma and J. Monagle (eds.), Health Care Ethics: Critical
Issues for the 21st Century, 1997 (forthcoming); Shamoo, Irving and
Langenberg, "Comparison of U.S. and non-U.S. studies from psychiatric
literature on schizophrenia", Cambridge Quarterly on Health Care Ethics
1997 (forthcoming); J. Katz, "Ethics in neurobiological research with human
subjects", Accountability in Research (1996), 4:277-283; Shamoo and
T.J. Keay, "Ethical concerns about relapse studies", Cambridge Quarterly
on Health Care Ethics (1996), 5:373-386; D.N. Irving, "Background paper:
Washouts/relapses in neurological research using human subjects", in Shamoo
(ed.), Proceedings of the First Baltimore Conference on Ethics: Ethics in
Neurobiological Research With Human Subjects (New York: Gordon and
Breach Science Publishers, 1996); D.N. Irving, "Psychiatric research:
Reality check", The Journal of the California Alliance for the Mentally
Ill (Spring 1994), 5:1:42-44 (see also similar articles there by
Hassner, Shamoo, Becker, Caplan, and the Journal's "Postscript"); Shamoo and
Irving, "Accountability in research with persons with mental illness",
Accountability in Research (Nov. 1993), 3:1:1-17; Shamoo and Irving,
"The PSDA and the depressed elderly: Intermittent competency revisited",
Journal of Clinical Ethics (Feb. 1993), 4:1:74-80; R. A. Destro,
"Quality-of-life ethics and constitutional jurisprudence: The demise of
natural rights and equal protection for the disabled and incompetent",
Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy (Spring 1996), pp, 1-11.
For a more historical
background, see: B. Muller-Hill, Murderous Science (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1988); R. Proctor, Racial Hygiene-Medicine Under the
Nazis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); J. Lifton, The
Nazi Doctors (New York: Plenum Press, 1986); B. Barber, Research On
Human Subjects (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1993); H. Jonas,
The Imperative of Responsibility (Chicago: Chicago University Press,
1984); Jay Katz, Experimentation With Human Beings (New York: Russell
Sage Foundation, 1972); A.C. Ivy, "The history and ethics of the use of
human subjects in medical experiments", Science (1948), 108:1-5.
98. M.M. Uhlmann, "The legal logic of euthanasia",
First Things (June/July 1996), 39-43.
99. Similar to my concern with the use of the terms
"pre-embryo" and "person" used in these bioethics "personhood" debates, see
the exquisite work demonstrating historically the abuses perpetrated on
"vulnerable" populations by means of redefining them as in some way
"sub-human" beings, by William Brennan, Dehumanizing the Vulnerable: When
Word Games Take Lives (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1995).
100. O'Rahilly and Muller (1994), pp. 8-9.
101. Robert H. Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah:
Modern Liberalism and American Decline (New York: Harper-Collins [Regan
Books], 1996), p. 192, also pp. 174ff. See also notes 72, 73, 74 supra
102. E.D. Pellegrino,
"Character and the ethical conduct of research", Accountability in
Research 2(1), 1992: pp. 1-11; E.D. Pellegrino "Trust and distrust in
professional ethics", in E.D. Pellegrino, R. Veatch, J. Langan, Ethics,
Trust, and the Professions (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University
Press, 1991), pp. 69-85; E.D. Pellegrino "Character, virtue and
self-interest in the ethics of the professions", Journal of Contemporary
Health Law and Policy 5 (Spring 1989), pp. 53-73.
For works more
focused on bench research science, see: D.N. Irving, "The impact of
scientific 'misinformation' on other fields: Philosophy, theology,
biomedical ethics and public policy", Accountability in Research
(April 1993), 2:4:243-272; A.E. Shamoo, "Role of conflict of interest in
public advisory councils" (Chapter 17), in D. Cheney, Ethical Issues in
Research (Frederick, MD: University Publishing Group, Inc., 1993); A.E.
Shamoo, "Role of conflict of interest in scientific objectivity: A case of a
Nobel Prize work", Accountability in Research (1992), 2:55-75; A.E.
Shamoo, "Policies and quality assurance in the pharmaceutical industry",
Accountability in Research (1991), 1:273-284; A.E. Shamoo, "Policies and
quality assurance in the pharmaceutical industry", Accountability in
Research (1991), 1:273-284; A.E. Shamoo, "Role of conflict of interest
in public advisory councils", Fidea Research Foundation Proceedings
(1991); John C. Bailar III, Marcia Angell, Sharon Boots et al, Ethics and
Policy in Scientific Publication (Bethesda, MD: Council of Biology
Editors, Inc., 1990); A.E. Shamoo, "Organizational structure and function of
research and development" (Chapter 4), in A.E. Shamoo (ed.), Principles
of Research Data Audit (New York: Gordon and Breach, 1989); Peter
McCullagh, The Foetus as Transplant Donor: Scientific, Social and Ethical
Perspectives (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1987); A.E. Shamoo and Z.
Annau, "Ensuring scientific integrity", Nature (1987), 327:550;
Gerhard Portele, "Moral development and education", in David Gosling and
Bert Musschenga, Science, Education and Ethical Values (Geneva: World
Council of Churches Publications; and Washington, D.C.: Georgetown
University Press, 1985), pp. 31-36; for a feminist view see Evelyn Fox
Keller, Reflections of Gender and Science (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1985); Gerrit Manenschijn, "Reasoning in science and ethics", in
Gosling (1985), pp. 37-54; for an historical view, see Crombie, Medieval
and Early Modern Science (New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1959).
103. D. N. Irving, "Politicization of science and
philosophy", C.E.R.P.H. Newsletter no. 2, p. 4 (Poitiers, France:
Centre d'Etudes sur la Reconnaissance de la Personne Humaine, 1995); D.N.
Irving, "'New age' embryology text books: 'Pre-embryo', 'pregnancy' and
abortion counseling; Implications for fetal research", Linacre Quarterly
(May 1994), 61:2:42-62.
104. Mary Louise Gill, Aristotle on Substance
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989); Charlotte Witt, Substance
and Essence in Aristotle (New York: Cornell University Press, 1989);
Marjorie Grene, A Portraitof Aristotle (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1963). Also see note 34 supra.
105. J. M. de Torre, "Transcendental Thomism and the
encyclical Veritas splendor", Fellowship of Catholic Scholars
Newsletter (April 1995), pp. 21-24; G.C. Reilly, "The empiricism of
Thomistic ethics", Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical
Association (Washington, D.C.: The Office of the Secretary of the
Association, The Catholic University of America, 1956), pp. 1-36.
106. Paul Edwards (ed.), The Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1967); Vol. 1, pp.
341-352.
107. D. N. Irving, "Academic fraud and conceptual
transfer in bioethics: Abortion, human embryo research, and psychiatric
research", in J.W. Koterski (ed.), Life and Learning IV: Proceedings of
the Fourth University Faculty For Life Conference (Washington, D.C.:
University Faculty For Life, June 1994), pp. 193-215.
108. Rena A. Gorlin (ed.), Codes of Professional
Responsibility (Washington, D.C.: The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.,
1991).
109. E.g., to name but a few: the current legislation
pending in the State of Maryland for the use of incompetent mentally ill
patients in experimental research; National Commission for the Protection of
Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, The Belmont Report
(Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1978)
(the explicit basis for all of these documents); President's Commission for
the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral
Research, several individual Reports including Summing Up
(Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983); United States
Code of Federal Regulations: Protection of Human Subjects 45 CFR 46
(revised Jan. 12, 1981, Mar. 8, 1983; reprinted July 1989 -- now in the
Common Rule for all departments of the federal government that
volunteer) (Washington, D.C.: DHHS); National Institutes of Health:
Report of the Human Fetal Transplant Research Panel (Washington, D.C.:
NIH, December 1988); NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts (Washington,
D.C.: NIH, 1990); NIH Revitalization Act, Public Law 103-43 (June
1993); Office for the Protection from Research Risks (OPRR), Protecting
Human Research Subjects: Institutional Review Board Guidebook
(Washington, D.C. NIH, 1993); NIH Guidelines on the Inclusion of Women
and Minorities as Subjects in Clinical Research, Federal Reg. 59 FR
14508 (Washington, D.C.: NIH, March 28, 1994); NIH Outreach Notebook On
the Inclusion of Women and Minorities in Biomedical and Behavioral Research
(Washington, D.C.: NIH, 1994); National Institutes of Health: Report of
the Human Embryo Research Panel (Washington, D.C.: NIH, Sept. 27, 1994);
the CIOMS/WHO International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research
Involving Human Subjects (Geneva: CIOMS/WHO, 1993).
110. To mention but a few: B. Ashley and K. O'Rourke,
Ethics of Health Care (St. Louis, MO: The Catholic Health
Association, 1996), pp. 250-251; T. Engelhardt, "Christian bioethics: A
non-ecumenical rebirth", Bioethics Research Notes (Dec. 1995)
(Australian), 7:4:37-38; J. F. Kilner, N.M. Cameron and D.L. Schiedermayer,
Bioethics and the Future (Grand Rapids, MI: William Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1995); D. Brodeur, "Guidance for a failing system",
Health Progress (Sept./Oct. 1995), 30-30-40; Daniel Callahan,
"Bioethics: private choice and common ground", Hastings Center Report
(May-June 1994), 28:31; Albert Jonsen, "Preface", in DuBose et al, What
About Principles? Ferment in U.S. Bioethics (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity
Press International, 1994); D.N. Irving, "Testimony before the NIH Human
Embryo Research Panel", Linacre Quarterly (1994), 61:82-89; D.N.
Irving, "Quality assurance auditors: Between a rock and a hard place",
Quality Assurance: Good Practice, Regulation, and Law (March 1994),
3:1:33-52; see the many writers who reject bioethics "principlism" in Raanan
Gillon (ed.), Principles of Health Care Ethics (New York: Wiley &
Sons, 1994); D.N. Irving, "Which ethics for science and public policy?",
Accountability in Research (1993), 3:2:3:77-99; D.N. Irving,
"Philosophical and scientific critiques of "autonomy-based" ethics: Toward a
reconstruction of the 'whole person' as the natural ground of ethics and
community", The International Bioethics Conference: Beyond Autonomy: New
International Perspectives for Bioethics (San Francisco, CA; April 16-18,
1993). A. Sharpe, How the Liberal Ideal Fails As a Foundation for Medical
Ethics (Doctoral dissertation)(Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University,
1991), Chapters 1-3.