U źródeł myśli bioetycznej Jana Pawła II w 25-lecie pontyfikatu

Abstract

John Paul II’s teaching is very rich in its different subjects. To a large degree it focuses on his concern for man. It is in that concern that John Paul II’s bioethical teaching is rooted. In the teaching three problem sections may be differentiated. The first one is concerned with creating and bearing a man. A man’s life is first of all the Creator’s gift, but in presenting it also the parents take part. It is in their personal communion that every man’s genealogy is inscribed. Such genealogy is also the basic condition for respecting the personal dignity of the man being born. Claiming to have God’s prerogatives and attempts at “creating” a man are directed against this dignity. The second section of problems is concerned with relations between the quality and sanctity of life. Criticism of the contemporary views on the quality of life, especially from the Anglo-Saxon circles, does not mean that this category is rejected altogether. In John Paul II’s teaching it receives a positive meaning as an indication of 1) good living standards, 2) mentalphysical health, and 3) theologal (spiritual-moral) life. Issues connected with the culture of life and death are the contents of the third section. The Pope discusses them more comprehensively in his Letter to Families Gratissimam sane (1994) and in the encyclical Evangelium vitae (1995). Making the culture of life more dynamic requires first of all restoring the meaning of man’s freedom in his consciousness, as well as leading a dialogue between people of good will and regaining one’s sensibility to God. Impairing this sensibility results in losing one’s sensibility to man.