How Brave a New World? by Richard A. McCormick (review)

456 BOOK REVIEWS How Bra;ve a New World? By RrcmARD A. McCoRMIOK. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1981. Pp. 440. $15.95. This is a collection of previously published essays, all of which relate to the ethical issues generated by contemporary biological and medical developments. The volume is divided into seven major sections: (a) general methodological reflections, (b) experimentation and the incompetent, (c) abortion, morality, and public policy, (d) contraceptive interventions, (e) reproductive technological genetics, (f) the preservation of life (especially those cases wherein technology promises seemingly open-ended extension of some degree of life), and (g) the quality of life. There is also an appendix, " The Principle of Double Effect," a concise summary of McCormick's research and refleetions on this topic as of 1976. Those who wrestle with this topic will want to consult this particular statement by McCormick; its brevity and simplicity may help some to understand his Doing Evil to .Achieve Good. Except for the fact that McCormick's name is now inextricably linked with research on double effect, one is surprised to find this appendix in this volume. Indeed, one could read the rest of the volume without becoming aware of McCormick's interest in this issue. Four lengthy essays reprinted here (i.e., an abortion "dossier," Humanae Vitae in 1968 and then ten years later, and the piece on genetic medicine) first appeared in the " Moral Theology Notes " of Theological Studies. They are also only recently published as an integral part of Notes on Moral Theology, 1965 through 1980 (University Press of America, 1981). Hence, readers with limited financial resources will perhaps think twice before purchasing both of the new collections of McCormick's work. McCormick's style in the " Notes" is evident in much of the present volume. He is masterly in reporting accurately and comprehensively what others have said about a particular topic; there is no better way to begin studying the literature on moral topics than by reading along in McCormick's "notes." Over the course of an entire book, however, that style can become burdensome. In this respeet, How Brave a New World'.I' suffers from not being more explicitly integrated around an identifiable theme and/or a set of fundamental principles consistently applied to each new topic. Still, those looking for a Roman Catholic theologian's reflections on bioethics will wisely turn to this volume. It is, in my judgment, possible to begin generalizing about McCormick's method and content when he is doing bioethics. Perhaps this is best done by playing off McCormick against James Gustafson, the other great master in summarizing ethical literature. Indeed, these two are notably similar in their talent faithfully to e~tract the core arguments and insights of other moralists. In other ways, however, they are notably dissimilar. I BOOK REVIEWS 457 shall here describe two such instances, the second of which is identified by McCormick himself. First of all, one must ask how important is McCormick's faith as he addresses these biological and medical issues. Explicitly in his preface he identifies himself as a Catholic moral theologian and defends the appearance of still " another book in bioethics" precisely in terms of his conviction that his own "religious faith stamps (him) at a profound and not totally recoverable depth"; that is to say, his Catholic faith makes a difference in what gets said. But, true to his words about its being not totally recoverable, nowhere does McCormick plumb his own depths in an effort to articulate the effects of such a faith-stamping (or is it a faithing stamp'). Of course, that is all right. That is the stuff of another book, or at least of an article that Gustafson might write about McCormick. When one recalls the former's Marquette lecture, The Contribution of Theology to Medical Ethics, one knows that Gustafson could surely trace at least some of the lines left on McCormick by the stamp of faith. Indeed, they are rather obvious. What is ironic, and important to say, is that this McCormick (who is so often branded by his Roman Catholic critics as too contemporary) carries the stamp of Catholic tradition much more obviously than the stamp...