4. THE THEOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF THE VARIOUS CONCEPTS OF HUMAN DIGNITY IN
4.9. THOMISTIC VIEW OF HUMAN DIGNITY: THE PERMISSIBILITY OF TAKING THE
more treatment and attention than others. This does not mean denying others their rights, rather it is a way of responding to the call of natural justice. Nature has presented to us certain realities that simply need more attention.
This links well with natural law i.e. the unwritten law inscribed in our hearts.984 As human beings, we have conscience, the inner divine faculty that helps us to make choices.985 In this case, when we are confronted with the birth of a child with disabilities, we do not need the written law to know that doing away with this child is wrong. We only need our well- informed conscience, the unwritten law, i.e. natural law, to know that the child needs support to live. Human dignity as equity and law are vital tools that could enrich the project to formulate an excellent theology of human dignity for disabled children. Human dignity as equity and natural law are unique compared to the sanctity of life principle and the image of God. They are not Biblical in outlook and have the potential to attract a wide range of followers. The research project will strongly consider their ideal values and incorporate them in the formulation of a theology of human dignity for children with disabilities.
4.9. THOMISTIC VIEW OF HUMAN DIGNITY: THE PERMISSIBILITY OF TAKING
uncompromising ethical and moral presence.990The stand of Socrates became an anchoring block upon which Aquinas built his theology.
Modern scholarship acknowledged that it was Aquinas who reconnected the ancient classical philosophy of Socrates, Aristotle and Platonic idealism to the contemporary thought on reason, in relation to the Christian faith.991 As Benedict XVI had stated, the encounter of Aquinas with pre-Christian philosophy of Aristotle opened up a new perspective of theology.992 The then contemporary reality showed that the Church was confronted with different pagan philosophers in which a complete unique vision of the world and human life was presented. Such philosophers still exist today and unique progressive ethical and theological theories still exists that weigh heavily on the life of the human person. It was Aquinas who somehow Christianised such pagan philosophical ideologies in the process of establishing his theological works that are preserved in the Summa Theologica. The current Social Teachings of the Catholic Church on matters related to euthanasia are still relevant today. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the declaration on euthanasia posed a serious social question: Is it ever permissible to kill an innocent person?993 The scholarly debate over such a question raised contrasting opinions. From the Christian perspective, such a question has an obvious answer. It would not be permissible to kill an innocent person.994 Contrary to this assertion, modern scholarship favours the idea of killing of an innocent person in certain circumstances.995 The understanding is that killing a person would be the better option for him or her and society, than to let this person live.996 This is based on the circumstances that a person is living in unredeemable pain and suffering. His or her condition, in principle, creates more suffering for those who are taking care of him or her. It might be more harmful to the parents, other siblings, and society if a person is left in that state. In similar instances, scholarship brought about the question of euthanasia.997 Applied to the current subject matter, it would be permissible to kill children with disabilities that are irreversible. The act would be in the best interest of the couples, the family and society.998
990 Ibid.10.
991 Ahlquist, D., (2014), http://www.chesterton.org/lecture - 67, 2. 06/13/2014.
992 Pope Emeritus, Pope Benedict XVI General Audience at St Peters Square Wednesday 16 June 2010.
993 The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, (2001), Declaration on Euthanasia, in Neuner, J.
and Dupuis, J., (Eds), The Christian Faith in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church, Bangalore:
Seventh Revised and Enlarged Edition, Theological Publications, 992-993.
994 Ibid.
995 Kaczor, C., (Ed), (2013), A Defense of Human Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life and Protecting the Rights of Conscience, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 7-10.
996 Ibid.
997 Dombrink, J.and Hillyard, D., (2001), Dying Rights: The Death with Dignity Movement, New York:
Routledge Publishers, Chapter 1-2, 20-70.
998 Ibid.
A child is eliminated because he or she would not, or may not, even have the potential to comprehend anything at this level. Considering all the other factors related to the problem of raising a child with disabilities, most families would find a clear justification for abandoning, dumping, or killing children with disabilities. Contrary to the above reality, one of the factors that is over-looked is the fact that God has sovereign authority over life and death.999 Of course, Aquinas stated that we need to assess several options, namely the gravity of the act itself and the intrinsic nature of things, rather than just considering what is incidental to them.1000
Regarding the intrinsic nature of things, this could include the trauma that the mother and the family of the child undergo in coping with the reality of life, particularly the life of a child with disabilities. In other cases, the child might have been suffering tremendously. On the emotional level of the family it would better put the child to eternal rest than to let things go on.1001 The nature of the act of killing would be horrible to hear, rendering it intrinsically evil. This is where the dilemma comes in. What ought to be the best option for the child, the mother, the family, and society? The state of being challenged calls for more love from others and this is what social justice is all about. Would killing a child with disabilities be considered as love for the child or love for the family, particularly the mother? St. Thomas stated that whoever kills an innocent child with disabilities, deprives the community of a greater good.1002 St. Augustine said, in affirmation of the statement, that he found no justification for the act of killing an innocent person: “I cannot bring myself to advise any people to kill others to prevent those others killing somebody, except in the case of a soldier or public servant who is doing this not for himself but for others, within the terms of authority duly given to him.”1003
“Firmly rooted fully respectful of human dignity and, in every sense of the word, reasonable, by being the champion of God the creator against the heresy of the Manicheans who considered the physical world evil, St Thomas Aquinas ultimately defended God’s most precious and mysterious creation: life more than anything else.” 1004
Aquinas defended the dignity of the human person by challenging the existing ideology of the then ancient philosophy, which stated that the material world was evil, as the Manicheans
999 Ibid.
1000 Ibid.
1001 Kaczor, C., (Ed), (2013), A Defense of Human Dignity: Creating Life, Destroying Life and Protecting the Rights of Conscience, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 7-10.
1002 Ibid.
1003 Ibid. 41.
1004 Ahlquist, D., (2014), Posted on 29th January. 14:40 GMT. http://www.chesterton.org/lecture - 67. 2-3.
had advocated in the discussion above.1005 Aquinas firmly affirmed God’s most precious and mysterious creation, i.e. life, as something that is in its own right the objective good.1006 Aquinas was actually opposing the idea that we could acquire or teach the truth through human rationality alone.1007 With regard to disabled infants, human rationality would open up avenues where human identity of such infants would be disputed. Aquinas bridged the two distinctive realities, i.e. human rationality as lived and expressed in human sciences and theology as a science that makes use of faith in order to discover the truth.1008 He advocated the harmony that ought to exist between the intelligibility of human sciences and the theological cognitive value of faith in all matters of morality.1009 He insisted on the reality of nature and grace as moral truths transmitted by the Church.1010 In this regard, St Thomas Aquinas’s emphasis on the dignity of human reason correlated well with his teaching on nature and grace, taking into account how reason, with its power, has a potential influence on the discernment of natural morals.1011
The pontiff illustrated that, through the capacity to reason, one can discern what is good to do and what is bad, in the process of achieving happiness, which is in each one’s heart and which imposes a responsibility towards others, hence reaching for a common good.1012 Conversely, divine grace supports, sustains and drives the ethical commitment for each and every individual person to recognise the intrinsic value of human nature, as expressed in natural law.1013 This idea is the reciprocal collaboration of human rationality and faith as building blocks for the realisation of a theology of human dignity that would ensure the attainment of human integrity of the children who are born with acute physical and mental disabilities. The general perception ought to be that the essence of the individual person, no matter how and in whatever state or condition, ought to be understood as the synthesis of the totality of human creation, a creation in the image of God, expressed through the biological union of the male and female gametes that form a single but unique whole.1014 In order to
1005 Shahan, R.W., and Kovach, F.J., (1976), Bonaventure and Aquinas, Enduring Philosophers, Oklahoma:
Oklahoma university Press, 118-132.
1006 Ibid.
1007 Ibid.
1008 Rosental, C.J., (2009), The Reconciliation of Faith and Reason in Thomas Aquinas, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Massachusetts, in http://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AA13136773, Posted on January 1, 00:16, GMT.
1009 Ibid.
1010 Pope Emeritus, Pope Benedict XVI’s General Audience Address at St. Peter’s Square, 16th June, 2010.
1011 ZENIT News Agency, (2012), Pontiff Explains Why the Society Needs Aquinas Today, in www.zenit.org/article - 29626, September, 22.
1012 Ibid.
1013 Ibid.
1014 The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Article No. 1700-1709.
reach and achieve this knowledge, one ought to do away with certain personal ideologies, cultural prejudices and political and economic interests.
The realities of life, looked at from the notions expressed above, objectify the human person as a mere product of biological evolution that takes away the sense of duty and responsibility towards one another.1015 Therefore the human person, seen from Aquinas’ perspective, ought to be at the heart of the whole social order. Aquinas emphasised the objective truth that holds human life to the highest level of all reality, while, the person himself or herself becomes the moral agent of human dignity.1016 As a moral agent, in Aquinas’ view, the person ought to reach the truth through his or her potential to reason and, at the same time, be informed by faith, as transmitted by the Church.1017 Finally, we can conclude that St Thomas’ legacy on the dignity of the human person ought to be the reciprocal synthesis of human rationality, informed by the divine faith as preserved and transmitted to us from the apostles through the Church.