Summaries / Resúmenes - Studia Moralia

THE SUBJECT-OBJECT RELATION IN CONTEMPORARY CATHOLIC MORAL THEOLOGY 55beings, the basic framework within which this destiny unfoldsis provided by the structures of giver, gift and receiver. A personis defined as one who is capable of receiving and giving to others,in freedom with knowledge. A person is “historical” in thesense that becoming a giver and receiver requires the gift oftime.The original intention of the giver is to give gifts to others.Particular intentions focus on particular gifts for particularreceivers. Intentions are shaped and directed by the virtuesrequired for giving, fundamentally, love. The giver, intending togive an appropriate gift, then seeks an act which can be anexpression of that intention. Some acts, by reason of their“nature” can be gift-giving acts. Others cannot.For example, consider the case of the ectopic fetus, mentionedby Selling, where the embryo is located in one of the fallopiantubes. Let us suppose that, in the situation described,without surgical intervention, the mother will die and, as a consequence,the embryo will die also. We begin by considering theintentions of the persons involved, that is, the mother and thesurgeon. Both, let us presume, intend to foster or “give” life.The question then to be asked is whether a surgical interventioncan be an appropriate expression of that intention. That is tosay, can it be a gift? It can be interpreted as a gift to the mother,namely as the giving of what is necessary for life, in that itremoves a danger to life. The surgical interventions that savethe fallopian tube can also be interpreted as the giving of a gift.They make it possible for the woman concerned to become agiver of gifts to others, that is, a giver of the gift of life to anotherchild.However, there may be something about the procedure thatstill prevents its being an expression of the intention to give life.This calls for reflection. There is no possibility, in this situation,of the embryo’s receiving the gift of life. Thus, a meaningful actof giving life is not possible in respect to the embryo. Since nogift of life can be given in this case, there is no possible act ofgiving available that could be an expression of the intention togive life. Abstaining from the surgical intervention itself will notsave the life of the embryo. It will die with or without the intervention.Therefore, such abstaining cannot be an expression ofthe intention to give life. The death of the child results fromphysical factors, which fall outside the framework of gift. The