Programska knjižnica 9. Lošinjskih dana bioetike - Hrvatsko ...

of the ethical aspect of competent patient’s request to die and physician’s
decision about it by both Christian and philosophical-legal approach. We
would like to emphasize the fact that human dignity is not determined by
external causes and does not depend on whether a person is healthy or
sick. Human dignity is something integral, essential and inalienable. Thus,
human dignity springs from the quality of human life as a unique human
being, as a spiritual and physical being gifted with reason, freedom and
self-responsibility, if we accept that man is created in the image and likeness
of God (1Mos 1, 26–27).
Our answer to the question what is the foundation of the Christian view
of man would be the following: a man is meant for eternity. We begin with
the standpoint that from the Christian point of view there is no such a thing
as a life without value. Taking this into account, human freedom is not
without responsibility. It would be good to make a research on motives,
reasons and social phenomena that are overwhelming in the decision of the
competent patient and the physician, as well as their axiological scale, by
that we mean the understanding of dignity, charity, autonomy, quality of
life, family values, community, medical ethics, legal security, justice and
the purpose of life. It is important to determine that the physician’s position
should be defined by law so that it facilitates an already difficult position
of having to decide about someone’s life. This would determine whether
or not there are grounds for legal prosecution, although Christian, moral
dilemma always remains, which we insist upon.
TIJANA TRAKO
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia /
Filozofski fakultet, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Hrvatska
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THE HUMAN BODY AND INTEGRATIVE BIOETHICS
The Meaning of the Body as a Symbolic Construct
The human body was understood differently throughout the history of
modern post-industrial society, as well as other societies and cultures. Also,
the ways in which we understand and approach the human body differ
across various scientific disciplines: medicine, sociology, theology, phi-