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Is Death a Moral Problem For The Franciscan Intellectual Tradition?
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is Death a Moral ProBleM for the franciscan intellectual traDition? thoMas a. nairn, o.f.M. introDuction It was Professor Ilia Delio who suggested that I write on the question whether death is a moral problem for the Franciscan intellectual tradition as it confronts issues raised in medical ethics. I do not think I would have come up with this topic, but I must also admit that ever since I was given the question, I have been intrigued by it. It has taken me to places I normally do not explore, places well outside of my comfort zone within moral theology and medical ethics, and in this paper I would like to share that thought-journey. There is a short answer and a long answer to the question posed in the title of this paper. The short answer is that for the intellectual tradition of a religious order founded by a person who referred to death as a “sister” and who embraced it lovingly, death simply cannot be a moral problem. However , as we look to the title of this Eleventh Annual Franciscan Symposium “Moral Action in a Complex World: Franciscan Perspectives,” a more complicated – shall we say complex – picture emerges: the long answer. Does our Franciscan intellectual tradition have anything to say to the complexity of medical-ethical decision-making regarding end of life is- Thomas a. NairN 94 sues today? The “long answer” that I would like to explore revolves around the following: At the time when the Franciscan intellectual tradition was developing, little or nothing could be done to prolong life, and thus the medical prolongation of life was not a real issue for the tradition to confront. Nevertheless, those who helped to develop the tradition had a lot to say regarding the nature of death, how one cares for the dying, and whether prolongation of life could be part of this care. The question that faces us today is whether this tradition can enter into conversation with medical ethics as understood in the twenty-first century with its dependence upon technology to prolong life and its involvement in the ethical questions regarding which forms of prolongation are appropriate and which are not. Can the Franciscan intellectual tradition help contemporary medical ethics not only in the question of the ethics of prolonging life but also in that of appropriate care for the dying in a Christian manner? Embedded in the above statements are four propositions that need to be investigated: (1) that prolongation of life was not an issue at the time of those who began the Franciscan intellectual tradition; (2) that the Franciscan tradition did have something to say about how one ought to care for the dying; (3) that our contemporary experience has been very different from that of the Middle Ages; and (4) that in spite of this difference, contemporary medical ethics can learn something from the Franciscan intellectual tradition. I will try to address each of these propositions in this essay. MeDicine in the MiDDle ages The prolongation of life as we understand it today was simply not an issue in the Middle Ages. In his classic text on the development of the ordinary/extraordinary distinction in Catholic medical ethics, Daniel Cronin begins his actual discussion of the distinction with the sixteenth century, covering the pre-history of the tradition in the thirteenth through [54.85.255.74] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 09:41 GMT) IS DEATH A MORAL PROBLEM? 95 sixteenth centuries in less than a page.1 Similarly, Darrel Amundsen shows that the understanding that the physician has a duty to prolong life does not arise until the writings of Francis Bacon in the sixteenth century: Francis Bacon ... in his De augmentis scientiarum, divides medicine into three offices: the preservation of health, the cure of diseases, and the prolongation of life. He then writes that “the third part of medicine which I have set down is that which relates to the prolongation of life, which is new, and deficient; and the most noble of all.” He protests that physicians have not recognized the significance of the “new” branch of medicine but have confused it with the other two. He urges physicians to investigate means of developing a regimen designed to contribute to longevity.2 When one investigates medicine in the Middle Ages, one discovers that it has much more in common with classical conceptions of medicine than with those of the early modern period of European history. The often-quoted...