Biomedical subjects

A A Howsepian

Publications and source records attributed to A A Howsepian.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

Sexual modification therapies: ethical controversies, philosophical disputes, and theological reflections.

Knowing, either by the light of natural reason or by the light of Christian revelation, that homosexuality is a disordered condition is not sufficient for its being ethically permissible to direct self-identified homosexual persons toward just any treatment that aims to modify sexual orientation. For example, such an undertaking would be morally impermissible in cases where the available "treatments" are known to be both futile and potentially damaging to persons undertaking them. I, therefore, introduce this edition of Christian Bioethics by reflecting on (a) the position of homosexuality in our current psychiatric nosology, (b) problems with drawing causal inferences from the outcomes of psychotherapy studies, and (c) the advantages and disadvantages of appealing to traditional categories of sexual orientation in this discussion, all with an eye toward more deeply elucidating core ethical concerns involving the intentional psychotherapeutic modification of sexual orientation.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed2004

Treating homosexuality: a response to Yarhouse.

Professor Mark A. Yarhouse proposes an 'identity synthesis' model of sexual modification therapy for homosexuals. This model is meant primarily to target the process by which one's sexual identity is synthesized, rather than the changing of sexual orientation itself. I highlight some of the advantages of Yarhouse's model along with some of its potential pitfalls. My primary point of departure with Yarhouse concerns how one ought to direct those self-identified homosexual clients who fall within our clinical sphere of influence and who, in the end, contrary to our better judgment, decide that they would like to pursue a course of "homosexualization." Based on the "autonomy" - emphasizing aspects of the identity synthesis model, it appears that Yarhouse is willing to sanction the referral of certain clients to "therapists" who are willing to facilitate these clients' homosexualization. I do not believe that Christians involved in the care of homosexuals can licitly participate in such referrals.

Behavior Therapy↗

PubMed2000

Toward a general theory of persons.

The fundamental question I consider is the following: What is it that makes one thing a person and another thing not? I do not provide a complete answer; rather I begin to develop a framework for answering the question. In this essay I do the following: (1) distinguish between the powers possessed by persons and the constitutions of persons, and propose some metaphysical conjectures concerning the relationship between persons' powers and their constitutions; (2) propose for Christians, as well as for others, an hylomorphic soul-body alternative to Cartesianism; (3) highlight some prominent differences between the nature of human persons to problems in biomedical ethics concerning the ontological and moral status of human embryos and of the comatose.

Beginning of Human Life↗

PubMed1998

Palliative options at the end of life.

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Euthanasia↗

PubMed1998

Post-traumatic stress disorder following needle-stick contaminated with suspected HIV-positive blood.

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HIV Seropositivity↗

PubMed1998

In defense of whole-brain definitions of death.

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Brain Death↗

PubMed1997

Lockwood on human identity and the primitive streak.

Michael Lockwood has recently concluded that it can be morally permissible to perform potentially damaging non-therapeutic experiments on live human (pre)embryos. The reasons he provides in support of this conclusion commit him inter alia to the following controversial theses: (i) an organism's potential for twinning bears critically on the identity conditions for that organism; and (ii) functionally intact mentality-mediating neurological structures play a critical role in establishing the identity conditions for human organisms. I argue that Lockwood has given us no good reason to endorse either of these theses and, hence, that he has given us no good reason to believe that it can be morally permissible to perform potentially damaging non-therapeutic experiments on live human (pre)embryos.

Beginning of Human Life↗

PubMed1996