I find it only right for society and the Church to formulate a teaching on bioenhancements before the technology comes to full fruition and to assist people in articulating why the Church believes it. Previous teachings of the Church can be used in the formation of this Church doctrine, such as the instructions on the dignity of human life, humans being made in the image and likeness of God and ones concerning human fallenness and finitude. With this in mind, I argue in this essay that the Catholic Church would generally be against bioenhancements in its teaching, which would concern the dignity of the human person, human finitude and fallenness, and humans being created in the image and likeness of God (imago dei). It is arguable, however, in the subject of bioethics that dignity is crucial to Catholic teaching. An important addition in this argument is to note the contrast between therapy and enhancements through defining and explaining each in terms of Church teaching. Bioenhancements attempt to reject the Catholic beliefs of dignity in the imago dei, and our finitude and fallenness, and for this reason bioenhancement technologies would be generally unacceptable in the Church except for the possibilities of the technology being used in the future to benefit
I find it only right for society and the Church to formulate a teaching on bioenhancements before the technology comes to full fruition and to assist people in articulating why the Church believes it. Previous teachings of the Church can be used in the formation of this Church doctrine, such as the instructions on the dignity of human life, humans being made in the image and likeness of God and ones concerning human fallenness and finitude. With this in mind, I argue in this essay that the Catholic Church would generally be against bioenhancements in its teaching, which would concern the dignity of the human person, human finitude and fallenness, and humans being created in the image and likeness of God (imago dei). It is arguable, however, in the subject of bioethics that dignity is crucial to Catholic teaching. An important addition in this argument is to note the contrast between therapy and enhancements through defining and explaining each in terms of Church teaching. Bioenhancements attempt to reject the Catholic beliefs of dignity in the imago dei, and our finitude and fallenness, and for this reason bioenhancement technologies would be generally unacceptable in the Church except for the possibilities of the technology being used in the future to benefit