A Liberal Catholic Bioethics opens a new dialogue between Christian reasoning and belief and secular positions in bioethics. The well documented book covers in detail internal and external debates and positions of Roman Catholic theology and hierarchy: issues of contraception and abortion, palliative care and euthanasia, caring humanely for the demented, the use and abuse of modern technology in medicine. The doctrine of Papal infalliability is identified as a main reason in hindering and suppressing a dialogue within the church, with the faithful and with other religious and humanist positions. Were the Borgia Popes infalliable, was Pope Urban infalliabe when he condemned Gallileo, the author asks. He thus carries the debate far beyond specific bioethics issues towards a more humane medicine and culture.
James F. Drane is Russell B. Roth Professor of Clinical Bioethics at Edinboro University, PA in the United States and has worked extensively with Pan American Health Organization and other institutions in introducing bioethics and clinical ethics in the Americas. Drane, a former Roman Catholic priest and one of the early and most respected authorities in bioethics, is not a Martin Luther; he remains a faithful. A postscriptum, "The Story of one liberal Catholic bioethcist", gives an account of his intellectual and spiritual biography.
