THE CHARTER FOR

HEALTH CARE WORKERS : LIFE

Marlon C. Soliman, RN, MAN
Director of Nursing

THE BEGINNING OF LIFE AND

BIRTH

Fertilization

The Beginning of Life and Birth

 From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a

life is begun which is neither that of the
father nor of the mother; it is rather the life
of a new human being with its own growth.
It would never be made human if it were
not human already....

 Right from the fertilization, the adventure of a new life

begins, and each of its capacities requires time.
Human biology have come to prove that "in the zygote
arising from fertilization, the biological identity of a new
human individual is already present.
It is the individuality proper to an autonomous being,
intrinsically determined, developing in gradual continuity.
Biological individuality, and therefore the personal
nature of the zygote is such from conception.

Prenatal Life

 Prenatal life is fully human in every phase of its

development. Hence health care workers owe it
the same respect, the same protection and the
same care as that given to a human person.
Gynecologists and obstetricians especially "must
keep a careful watch over the wonderful and
mysterious process of generation taking place in
the maternal womb, to ensure its normal
development and successful outcome with the
birth of the new child

Birth

 an important and significant stage in the

development begun at conception.
It is not a "leap" in quality or a new
beginning, but a stage, with no break in
continuity, of the same process.
Childbirth is the passage from maternal
gestation to physiological autonomy of
life.

 Once born, the child can live in

physiological independence of the mother
and can enter a new relationship with the
external world.
It may happen, in the case of premature
birth, that this independence is not fully
reached. In this case health care workers
are obliged to assist the newborn child,
making available to it all the conditions
necessary for attaining this independence.

 If, despite every effort, the life of the

child is at serious risk, health care
workers should see to the child's
baptism according to the conditions
provided by the Church.
If an ordinary minister of the sacrament
is unavailable a priest or a deacon
the health care worker has the faculty to
confer it.

THE VALUE OF LIFE: UNITY OF BODY AND

SOUL

 The human being, in fact, is the 'only

creature that God has wanted for its own
sake.
Everything is created for humans.
The human being' alone, created in the
image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26
27) is not and cannot be for any other or
others but for God alone, and this is why
he exists.
The human being alone is a person: he has
the dignity of a subject and is of value in

 The human person, created in the

image of God, is a being at once
corporeal and spiritual. The biblical
account expresses this reality in
symbolic language when it affirms that
"then the LORD God formed man of
dust from the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living being. Man, whole and
entire, is therefore willedby God.

 The human body shares in the dignity of

"the image of God": it is a human body
precisely because it is animated by a
spiritual soul, and it is the whole human
person that is intended to become, in the
body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit.
Man,thoughmadeofbodyandsoul,isaunity.Throughhis
verybodilyconditionhesumsupinhimselftheelementsof
the material world. Through him they are thus brought to
their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise
freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not
despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his
bodyasgoodandtoholditinhonorsinceGodhascreated
itandwillraiseituponthelastday

 . Human life is irreducibly both corporeal and

spiritual.
"By virtue of its substantial union with a
spiritual soul, the human body cannot be
considered merely an amalgam of tissues,
organs and functions, nor can it be measured
by the same standards as the body of animals,
but it is a constitutive part of the person who by
means of it manifests himself and acts.

 "Every human person, in his unrepeatable

uniqueness, is made up not only of spirit
but also of a body, so that in the body and
through it the person is reached in his
concrete reality."

 Every intervention on the human body

"touches not only the tissues, the
organs and their functions, but involves
also at various levels the person
himself.
Healthcare must never lose sight of "the
profound unity of the human being, in the
obvious interaction of all his corporal
functions, but also in the unity of his
corporal, affective, intellectual and spiritual
dimensions."

 One cannot isolate "the technical

problem posed by the treatment of a
particular illness from the care that
should be given to the person of the
patient in all his dimensions.
It is well to bear this in mind,
particularly at a time when medical
science is tending towards
specialization in every discipline

 Revealing the person, the body, in its

biological makeup and dynamic, is the
foundation and source of moral
accountability. What is and what
happens biologically is not neutral. On
the contrary it has ethical relevance: it is
the indicativeimperative for action. The
body is a properly personal reality, the
sign and place of relations with others,
with God and with the world.101

 One cannot prescind from the body and

make the psyche the criterion and source of
morality: subjective feelings and desires
cannot replace or ignore objective corporal
conditions. The tendency to give the former
pride of place over the latter is the basis for
contemporary psychologization of ethics
and law, which makes individual wishes
(and technical possibilities) the arbiter of
the lawfulness of behavior and of
interventions on life.

 The health care worker cannot neglect the

corporeal truth of the person and be willing to
satisfy desires, whether subjectively
expressed or legally codified, at variance with
the objective truth of life.