Many of Medicine's Earliest Interlocutors Were Theologians

In Albert Jonsen’s (1998) estimation, bioethics historian Hans Jonas was “the

first philosopher of eminence to arrive on the medical ethics scene” (p. 241).

Jonas (2000) characterized his own philosophy as an “existential interpretation

of biological facts” (p. xxiii). According to Jonsen, Jonas “provided all nascent

bioethicists an exemplar of serious, disciplined, and deep philosophical reflection”

(p. 241). One of Jonas’s early papers is particularly worthy of singling out

for my current purposes. His “Technology and Responsibility: Reflections on

the New Tasks of Ethics” (1973) makes a case for responsible restraint in the use

of technological power to counter a drift toward “automatic utopianism.”

Between a stint as managing editor of Commonweal, a lay Catholic review of

religion, politics, and culture, and his founding (with Willard Gaylin) of the

Hastings Center in 1969, Daniel Callahan published an important early article on

“The Sanctity of Life,” in which he explored “the rapid expansion of the range

of human alternatives” in dealing with the issue of “human co...