STEWARDSHIP, TOTALITY, DOUBLE-EFFECT

PRINCIPLE, & PRINCIPLES OF COOPERATION

Prepared by:

Baustista, Toni Elyse Bette

Serato, Mary Grace D.

MT0835

PRINCIPLE OF STEWARDSHIP

Stewardship requires us to appreciate the two great gifts that a wise and loving God has given: the earth, with all its natural resources, and our own human nature, with its biological, psychological, social and spiritual capacities.

This principle is grounded in the presupposition that God has absolute Dominion over creation, and that, insofar as human beings are made in God’s image and likeness (Imago Dei), we have been given a limited dominion over creation and are responsible for its care.

PRINCIPLE OF STEWARDSHIP

The principle requires that the gifts of human life and its natural environment be used with profound respect for their intrinsic ends.

The gift of human creativity especially should be used to cultivate nature and the environment, recognizing the limitations of our actual knowledge and the risks of destroying these gifts.

PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT

An action that is good in itself that has two effects--an intended and otherwise not reasonably attainable good effect, and an unintended yet foreseen evil effect--is licit, provided there is a due proportion between the intended good and the permitted evil.

When there is a clash between the two universal norms of "do good" and "avoid evil," the question arises as to whether the obligation to avoid evil requires one to abstain from a good action in order to prevent a foreseen but merely permitted concomitant evil effect.

PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT

The principle of double effect holds that it is morally allowable to perform an action that has a bad effect only under the following conditions:

1. The action to be performed must be good in itself, or at least indifferent. This is evident, for if the act is evil of its very nature, nothing can make it good or indifferent. Evil would then be chosen directly, either as an end or as a means to an end, and there could be no question of merely permitting or tolerating it. If the action is fundamentally and inherently morally illicit, then it cannot be morally permitted regardless of any good intentions or goals, or under any good circumstances.

PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT

2. The evil effect must not be directly intended for itself but only permitted to happen as an accidental by-product of the act performed.  

3. The good intended must not be obtained by means of the evil effects.

The evil must not be an actual factor in the accomplishment of the good.

PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT

4. There must be a reasonably grave reason for permitting the evil

effect.

If the good is slight and the evil great, the evil can hardly be called incidental. If there is any other way of getting the good effect without the bad effect, this other way must be taken.

PRINCIPLE OF TOTALITY

The term "totality" points to the duty to preserve intact the physical component of that integrated whole.

The roots of the principle of totality are spread through the writings of Aristotle and Aquinas.

This principle dictates that the well-being of the whole person must be taken into account in deciding about any therapeutic intervention or use of technology. 

the principle of totality means, "the parts of the physical entity, as parts, are ordained to the good of the physical whole." From the medical perspective, the principle of totality would mean that "all the parts of the human body, as parts, are meant to exist and function for the good of the whole body, and are thus naturally subordinated to the good of the whole body."

PRINCIPLES OF COOPERATION

The principles of cooperation were developed in the Catholic moral tradition as a way of helping individuals discern how to properly avoid, limit, or distance themselves from evil (especially intrinsic evil) in order to avoid a worse evil or to achieve an important good.

The principles of cooperation are actually a constellation of moral criteria:

Formal cooperation occurs when a person or organization freely participates in the action(s) of a principal agent, or shares in the agent’s intention, either for its own sake or as a means to some other goal. Implicit formal cooperation occurs when, even though the co-operator denies intending the object of the principal agent, the cooperating person or organization participates in the action directly and in such a way that it could not be done without this participation. Formal cooperation in intrinsically evil actions, either explicitly or implicitly, is morally illicit.

PRINCIPLES OF COOPERATION

Immediate material cooperation occurs when the cooperator participates in circum stances that are essential to the commission of an act, such that the act could not occur without this

participation. Immediate material cooperation in intrinsically evil actions

is morally illicit. There has been in the tradition a debate about the permissibility of immediate cooperation in immoral acts under "duress." When individuals are forced under duress (e.g., at gunpoint) to cooperate in the intrinsically evil action of another, they act with diminished freedom.

Following Church teaching, the matter of their action remains objectively evil, but they do not intend this object with true freedom. In such cases, the matter remains objectively evil as such, but the subjective culpability of the cooperator is diminished.

PRINCIPLES OF COOPERATION

Mediate material cooperation occurs when the co-operator participates in circumstances that are not essential to the commission of an action, such that the action could occur even without this cooperation. Mediate material cooperation in an immoral act might be justifiable under three basic conditions: If there is a proportionately serious reason for the cooperation

(i.e., for the sake of protecting an important good or for avoiding a worse harm); the graver the evil the more serious a reason required for the cooperation;

The importance of the reason for cooperation must be proportionate to the causal proximity of the co-operator's action to the action of the principal agent (the distinction between proximate and remote);

The danger of scandal (i.e., leading others into doing evil, leading others into error, or spreading confusion) must be avoided.