religion: ch 7 vocab

ABORTION - The destruction of a child after conception but before birth.

ASSISTED SUICIDE - Any action or omission of action that assists another person in bringing about his own death. Responsibility may be aggravated by the scandal given because every human being must be absolutely respected and protected in his integrity.

AUTONOMY - The belief that one is entirely independent and is responsible only to himself for his actions and the direction of his life. A false conception of this can lead to atheism.

BIOETHICS - Derived from the Greek words bios (life) and ethikos (ethics). The discipline dealing with ethical questions related to human life that arise as a result of advances in medicine and biology.

CLONING - The process of developing a person or animal from one somatic cell of its parent, thus it is genetically identical to that parent.

CULTURE OF DEATH - Term introduced by Pope John Paul II to indicate a society or culture that tolerates or favors acts and ideas that are an affront to the dignity of human life.

DIGNITY OF HUMAN LIFE - The quality of being worthy or honorable; worthiness, nobleness, excellence.

EUTHANASIA - From the Greek meaning “good death,” an action or omission of an action that, by itself or by intention, causes a person’s death in order to eliminate suffering.

EXCOMMUNICATION - Censured by a bishop in response to a grave, habitual, public sin.

EXTRAORDINARY MEANS - Life-sustaining forms of medical care that are (a) radically painful, (b) excessively expensive, (c) doubtfully able to accomplish their designated objective, or (d) radically burdensome.

JUST WAR - The principle that war may be legitimately waged, under certain specific conditions, for the protection of a nation’s rights.

MURDER - The sinful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. This is listed among the sins that cry to Heaven and is forbidden by the Fifth Commandment.

MUTILATION - The action of disfiguring a part of the body, sometimes rendering it useless or wounded.