Reproductive Rights versus the Christian Culture of the Body. Two Different Perspectives
Abstract
The comparison between the concept of sexual and reproductive rights and the idea of gender and the Christian culture of the body with its personalist anthropology reveals their essential differences. The concept of reproductive rights is permeated with individualism, where sex identity can be freely defined, and sexual activities of individuals—provided that they stay within the boundaries of law—are not subjected to any moral norms. The main point of the disagreement between the concept of reproductive rights and the Christian culture of the body concerns the meaning of human corporeality. For the former, human body is, in a certain way, an ‘outside’ of the self-determining subject. According to the latter view, human body participates in man’s dignity as his constituent dimension. Another difference revolves around the meaning of sexual activity. Efforts to force implementation of sexual and reproductive rights, along with gender informed law and culture, are dangerous to the fundamental group unit of society—the family—based on the marriage between man and woman.
Keywords
human rights; reproductive and sexual rights; Christian culture of the body; encyclical Humanae Vitae; gender; personalistic concept of person
References
Balicki, Janusz. “Globalna polityka ludnościowa. Konflikt Północ – Południe.” Saeculum Christianum 7(2) (2000): 221–224.
Benedikt XVI. “Ansprache an die Teilnehmer an dem von der Päpstlichen Lateranuniversität veranstaltete Internationalen Kongress über das natürliche Sittengesetz.” February 12, 2007. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2007/february/documents/hf_benxvi_spe_20070212_pul_ge.html. Accessed August 8, 2018.
Bioethics Reflection Group of COMECE. “The Term ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health’ and Its Meaning at International and European Levels.” In Science & Ethics. Collection of Opinions Prepared by the Bioethical Reflection Group (COMECE: Brussels 2012), 5–29.
Bundesministerium für Justiz und für Verbraucherschutz, Strafgesetzbuch (StGB) § 218–218a. Accessed January, 31, 2019.
Chazan, Bogdan. Prawo do życia. Bez kompromisu. Interview with Maciej Müller. Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM, 2014.
“Gaudium et spes. Konstytucja o Kościele w świecie współczesnym.” In Sobór Watykański II, Konstytucje – Dekrety – Deklaracje. Tekst łacińsko-polski. Poznań: Pallotinum 1967, 811–987.
Gerl-Falkovitz, Hanna-Barbara. Frau – Männin – Menschin. Zwischen Feminismus und Gender. Kevelaer: Butzon & Berker, 2009.
Gocko, Jerzy. “O prawach człowieka i niektórych kontrowersjach z nimi związanych.” In Prawa człowieka. W 60. rocznicę uchwalenia Powszechnej Deklaracji Praw Człowieka – przesłanie moralne Kościoła, ed. Krzysztof Jeżyna and Tadeusz Zadykowicz. Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL, 2010, 33–48.
John Paul II. The International Community. List do Głów Państw na Międzynarodową Konferencję na temat Zaludnienia i Rozwoju w Kairze.” March 19, 1994. In Posoborowe Dokumenty Kościoła katolickiego o małżeństwie i rodzinie, Vol. II, ed. Kazimierz Lubowicki. Kraków: Wydawnictwo M, 1999), 105–108.
Korobczenko, Karolina. “Ideologia gender a ‘osobotwórcza’ funkcja ciała i płci w teologii Jana Pawła II.” In Idea gender jako wyzwanie dla teologii, edited by Antoni Jucewicz and Marian Machinek. Olsztyn: Hosianum, 2009, 94–96.
Kupczak, Jarosław. Teologiczna semantyka płci. Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM, 2013.
Machinek, Marian. “Teologiczna antropologia w konfrontacji z ideą gender.” Idea gender jako wyzwanie dla teologii, edited by Antoni Jucewicz and Marian Machinek. Olsztyn: Hosianum, 2009, 108–109.
Machinek, Marian. “Zur Kontroverse über die normative Dimension der menschlichen Leiblichkeit.” Studia Nauk Teologicznych 8 (2013): 185–193.
Paweł VI. Humanae vitae. Encyklika o zasadach moralnych w dziedzinie przekazywania życia ludzkiego. In Posoborowe Dokumenty Kościoła katolickiego o małżeństwie i rodzinie, vol. I, edited by Kazimierz Lubowicki. Kraków: Wydawnictwo M, 1999, 21–42.
Pokrywka, Marian. “Prawa reprodukcyjne.” In Prawa człowieka. W 60. Rocznicę uchwalenia Powszechnej Deklaracji Praw Człowieka – przesłanie moralne Kościoła, edited by Krzysztof Jeżyna and Tadeusz Zadykowicz. Wydawnictwo KUL: Lublin, 2010, 115–126.
Powszechna Deklaracja Praw Człowieka, http://www.unesco.pl/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Powszechna_Deklaracja_Praw_Czlowieka.pdf. Accessed January 30, 2019.
Proclamation of Teheran, Final Act of the International Conference on Human Rights, Teheran. http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/l2ptichr.htm. Accessed January 30, 2019.
Rada Europy. Konwencja Rady Europy o zapobieganiu i zwalczaniu przemocy wobec kobiet i przemocy domowej. https://rm.coe.int/168046253c. Accessed February 1, 2019.
Sgreccia, Ellio. Personalist Bioethics. Foundations and Applications. Philadelphia: NCBC, 2012.
Stoller, Robert J. Sex and Gender. On the Development of Masculinity and Femininity. New York: Carnak Books, 1968.
IV Światowa Konferencja w sprawie Kobiet, Platforma Działania. http://www.tus.org.pl/uploads/dokumenty/raport_czwartej_swiatowej_konferencji_w_sprawie_kobiet_pekin_1995.pdf. Accessed January 30, 2019.
United Nations. Report of the International Conference on Population and Development. Cairo September 5–13 1994. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/events/pdf/expert/27/SupportingDocuments/A_CONF.171_13_Rev.1.pdf. Accessed January 30, 2019.
Wojtyła, Karol. Miłość i odpowiedzialność. Lublin: TN KUL, 2001.
Zasady Yogyakarty. Zasady stosowania międzynarodowego prawa praw człowieka w stosunku do orientacji seksualnej oraz tożsamości płciowej. https://www.kph.org.pl/publikacje/b-y_zasady.pdf. Accessed January 15, 2014.
“Zastrzeżenia Stolicy Apostolskiej.” L’Osservatore Romano (Pl) 15(11) (1994): 48.
Jan Pawel II. “Veritatis splendor. Encyklika o niektórych podstawowych problemach nauczania moralnego Kościoła.” In Jan Paweł II, Veritatis splendor. Tekst i komentarze, edited by Andrzej Szostek. Lublin: Wydawnictwo KUL, 1995, 5–103.
The Copyright Owners of the submitted texts grant the Reader the right to use the pdf documents under the provisions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License: Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA). The user can copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose.
1. License
The University of Silesia Press provides immediate open access to journal’s content under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s.
If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, graphs, maps), the author declares that the said works are of his authorship, they do not infringe the rights of the third party (including personal rights, i.a. the authorization to reproduce physical likeness) and the author holds exclusive proprietary copyrights. The author publishes the above works as part of the article under the licence "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International".
ATTENTION! When the legal situation of the illustrative material has not been determined and the necessary consent has not been granted by the proprietary copyrights holders, the submitted material will not be accepted for editorial process. At the same time the author takes full responsibility for providing false data (this also regards covering the costs incurred by the University of Silesia Press and financial claims of the third party).
3. User Rights
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, provided they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
4. Co-Authorship
If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
I hereby declare that in the event of withdrawal of the text from the publishing process or submitting it to another publisher without agreement from the editorial office, I agree to cover all costs incurred by the University of Silesia in connection with my application.
