Science, Yes, but at the Service of Life

Review of the work in three volumes ‘Bioética, Cuidado e   Humanização’ by Leo Pessini, Luciana Bertachini and Christian De P. De  Barchifontaine, published by Edições Loyola, San Paolo, Brazil, 2014.

pessini By Luciana Mellone

The approach of this publishing project begins with a contemplation, in all their beauty, frailty and delicacy, of the three alpine flowers – the edelweiss, the alpine rose and the gentian – placed on the covers of the three volumes that make up this work, flowers which reflect the wonderful work of the Creation.

The authors lead us through an in-depth analysis of the society of the twenty-first century, a society which is characterised by increasing technology, communication and scientific knowledge which have generated easier ways of living and improvements in life expectancy for all of us but which at the same time have constituted an unbridled scientific and technological race that has ended up with a detachment of people from those ethical and moral values that form the basis of all human society, producing a cold, ascetic and dehumanised reality where individuals increasingly live, paradoxically, in selfish isolation.

Thus it is that the authors warn us about the urgent need to ward off this pathway that the man of today is now taking so as to avoid self-destruction in the future. This is possible only through the reacquisition and revitalisation of deep ethical values, such as the capacity to share and to love our neighbour, all living beings and the environment, with especial attention being paid to those who are most vulnerable because of their suffering. Science, yes, but at the service of life and not an end in itself.

We must return to respect for the human person in his totality – his physical, mental, social and spiritual self. In these words is heard the cry of respect for human dignity, the same cry that St. Camillus launched four centuries ago: ‘more heart in those hands’.

This work revolves around three fundamental topics which are expressed in its title: ‘Bioethics, Care and Humanisation’. A large number of national and international authors have contributed essays based on their own specialisations, amongst whom Fr. Leocir Pessini, the newly elected Superior General of the Order of the Regular Clerics of the Ministers of the Sick (Camillians), a philosopher and theologian with a doctorate in moral theology and bioethics at the Our Lady of the Assumption Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of San Paolo, a lecturer in bioethics at the St. Camillus University Centre and the author of numerous works on pastoral care in health and bioethics.

 

Read here the press information