CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES AND CONTEMPORARY MEDICAL MORALS A Catholic perspective on medical morals antedates the current world­ wide interest in medical and biomedical ethics by many centuries[5]. Discussions about the moral status of the fetus, abortion, contraception, and sterilization can be found in the writings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church. Teachings on various aspects of medical morals were scattered throughout the penitential books of the early medieval church and later in more formal treatises when moral theology became recog­ nized as a distinct discipline. Still later, medical morality was incorpor­ ated into the many pastoral works on medicine. Finally, in the contemporary period, works that strictly focus on medical ethics are produced by Catholic moral theologians who have special interests in matters medical. Moreover, this long tradition of teaching has been put into practice in the medical moral directives governing the operation of hospitals under Catholic sponsorship. Catholic hospitals were monitored by Ethics Committees long before such committees were recommended by the New Jersey Court in the Karen Ann Quinlan case or by the President's Commission in 1983 ([8, 9]). Underlying the Catholic moral tradition was the use of the casuistic method, which since the 17th and 18th centuries was employed by Catholic moralists to study and resolve concrete clinical ethical dilem­ mas. The history of casuistry is of renewed interest today when the case method has become so widely used in the current revival of interest in medical ethics[ll].

I: A Prologue.- Some Basic Considerations on Moral Teaching in the Church.- II: The Philosophical Foundations.- Nature and Human Nature as the Norm in Medical Ethics.- The Human Person and Philosophy of Medicine: A Response to William A. Wallace.- Philosophical Foundations of Catholic Medical Morals (translated by E. E. Langan).- Moral Disagreements in Catholicism: A Commentary on Wallace, Schüller, and Thomasma.- III: The Theological Foundations.- "Catholic" Medical Moral Theology?.- "Theological" Medical Morality? A Response to Joseph Fuchs.- Theological Argument and Hermeneutics in Bioethics.- The Doctrinal Starting Points for Theology and Hermeneutics in Bioethics: A Response to Klaus Demmer.- A Brief History of Medical Ethics from the Roman Catholic Perspective: Comments on the Essays of Fuchs, Cahill, Demmer, and Hellwig.- IV: Pluralism within the Church.- Pluralism within the Church.- One Church, Plural Theologies.- Is Ethics One or Many?.- Can Ethics Be Contradictory?: A Response to Gerard J. Hughes, S. J..- V: Pluralism in Society.- Religious Pluralism and Social Policy: The Case of Health Care.- Consensus, Moral Witness, and Health-Care Issues: A Dialogue with J. Bryan Hehir.- Notes on a Catholic Vision of Pluralism.- A Brief Commentary on "Notes on a Catholic Vision of Pluralism".- VI: Agapeistic Medical Ethics.- The Art and Science of Medicine.- Agape and Ethics: Some Reflections on Medical Morals from a Catholic Christian Perspective.- Notes on Contributors.