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Bioethics Department
Mission Statement:
“I say this so that no one may deceive you by specious arguments. … See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philoso-
phy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ.” (Eph. 2:4,8)
We provide students with the philosophical foundation whereby they are able to understand both the nature and the dignity of the human
person as well as how he can best use his human faculties to achieve genuine fulfillment as a human being in this life and in the life to
come.
Equipping students with the specific ethical principles normative in the fields of health care and the life sciences, the bioethics department
analyzes the bioethical issues of our day, integrating ethical knowledge with that of other disciplines in order to determine how the human
person should act in order to secure his true happiness.
The following three concepts permeate the entire Bioethics curriculum like a recurring theme:
The exalted dignity of every human person because of his God-given powers of intellect and free will,
The objective nature of ethical norms as laws which are derived from human nature, and
The relation of moral norms to genuine human fulfillment.
Bioethics is the field of study concerned with the ethical implications of certain biological and medical pro-
cedures, technologies, and treatments. The bioethics curriculum at Saint John Paul the Great Catholic
High School is required as integral to the course of studies for the student in each of his four years. The
curriculum is designed to instill an ethical perspective based on the dignity of the human person, in order
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to properly evaluate the various issues to be faced in the 21 Century.
Required Courses: Elective Courses:
The Human Person: A Philosophical Perspective Case Studies and Application in Bioethics
Health: An Ethical Approach The Human Person in a Biotech Age
Principles of Ethics
Bioethical Issues at the Beginning of Life
Bioethical Issues at the End of Life
2110 – The Human Person: A Philosophical Per- 2129—Health: An Ethical Approach
spective Cross listed with Physical Education Department
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Credit: 0.5
Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12 Credit: 0.5 Prerequisite: None
Prerequisite: None This course is designed to take a holistic approach
This course studies what it means to say that hu- to human health. It is based on the conviction that
man beings are persons, i.e., beings endowed with the human person is a unified totality, whose well-
freedom and an inner life capable of knowing and being consists in the proper integration of his physi-
loving. Topics include: the union of body and soul; cal, emotional, mental, social, and moral life. From
the powers of the rational soul and its immortality; this perspective, the course seeks to investigate
human passions and temperaments, the comple- both the positive development of human well-being
mentarily of the sexes, and the theology of the and certain disorders which threaten this develop-
body. From this study, the student will come to ment. Among the topics to be studied are the fol-
appreciate the profound dignity of every human lowing: basic factors in physical, mental, emotional
person. and moral health; nutrition and fitness; use of
drugs, steroids, and alcohol; neurotic and psychotic
illnesses; sexual health and sexual disease.
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