Faith and Morality – Episode 3

Bio - Who is Moira?

Today we can play ‘god’. Medical technology can ‘create’ life – even human life – and it can destroy it. Issues of the beginning of life like in-vitro fertilisation and cloning, and issues of the end of life, like the recent Terri Schiavo case, are hotly debated moral issues in our times. In all this moral confusion, what does the Roman Catholic Church teach us? What is our hope?

We discuss these issues with Moira McQueen, Director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Theology, University of St Michael’s College, Toronto.

Dr. Moira McQueen graduated in law from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, and worked as a lawyer for several years, specializing in family law and juvenile court. Moira’s personal questions about morality led her on an intense search for the truth – a truth she discovered in the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church. Hence she studied theology and later earned a Ph.D in moral theology. Moira has written and co-authored several articles in bioethics and other areas.

• How is the commandment to love fulfilled by leaving the choice of life and death in God’s hands?
  Read Veritatis Splendor, 88-89.
• Where do the Scriptures say that the defence and promotion of life is a task entrusted to every person?
  Read Matthew 5:1-16.
• How do I know whether I am acting for the good? How do I recognize the ‘good’?
  Read Veritatis Splendor , 8-9.

• The Encyclical of John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, The Splendor of Truth (August 6, 1993)
• The Encyclical of John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, The Gospel of Life (March 25, 1995)
• The Gospel according to Matthew, Chapters 5-7
• Catechism of the Catholic Church, Part Three, Section One, Chapter One, Article 4:
  The Morality of Human Acts (1749-1761)