Continuing our discussion of the health care system with my former professor and colleague, Dr. David Jones Emeritus Professor of Theology and Ethics, Covenant Theological Seminary …

PROBE: I have recently heard interviews and read reviews regarding Gilbert Meilander’s new book Neither Beast Nor God (New York: Encounter, 2009). As you are aware, Meilander was a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics—a council established by President Bush and recently discontinued by President Obama. Meilander’s book is built around the distinction he makes between human dignity and personal dignity. While every human being possesses personal dignity inherently as one made in the image of God, human dignity varies according to one’s behavior or the way one is treated. As Meilander says, “Human dignity is to be found in the kind of life that honors and upholds the peculiar nature that is ours.” So birth, breeding and death are the primary culprits to offend against human dignity. Consequently, our most intense cultural battles focus around these three areas. This paragraph in Meilander’s book is a crucial one for me in thinking about matters that threaten human dignity:

We can deal safely with these puzzles and difficulties only when we put personal dignity first. A society can acknowledge and reward differences in accomplishment and achievement, it can recognize the sadness and tragedy of disability and fading capacities, and it can appreciate the worth of particular loves and special bonds of association—it can, that is, honor and affirm the dignity of the human condition, of this creature who is neither beast nor god. But it can safely do this only when its first and last commitment is to respect the equal dignity of persons, each of whom is made for community with God. It will sometimes be difficult to sort out the relation between these two concepts of dignity, and it is no shame to find ourselves sometimes puzzled and uncertain, but it is an effort that honors the human dignity we share.

If you agree that these are valid albeit imperfect distinctions how do you think they apply to health care in general and the national debate specifically?

Response: I’m glad you said “it is not shame to find ourselves sometimes puzzled and uncertain” because that’s exactly how I feel about Meilander’s book. I was privileged to be invited to dinner with him the evening before he gave a special lecture to medical students at Washington University arranged by faculty member Jay Wippold, MD. At dinner someone asked if the President’s Commission had ever taken up the issue of health care during his tenure. He said they had not for the issue was not only complex but complicated by partisan commitments. I did learn that President Obama established a new Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, November 24, 2009.

PROBE: Ok, Professor, how has your former student shamed you by failing to ask the most obvious questions?! Is there anything else you think we need to consider as those who want to think and act Christianly in regard to healthcare?

Response: No mas