Are you the repentant prodigal son, or his proud brother?

Are you the repentant prodigal son, or his proud brother?
“This world, which appears to be a great workshop in which knowledge is developed by man – which appears as progress and civilization, as a modern system of communication, as a structure of democratic freedom without any limitations – this world is not capable of making man happy."

- Pope John Paul II, On the Threshold of Hope

Dr Abe V Rotor

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt van Rijk 

I am a modern day Prodigal Son. I spent fifty long years searching and searching for a place I may call my own in the whole wide world. Yes, fifty long years of my youth and in old age – twice longer the fiction character Rip van Winkle did sleep – and now I am back to the portals of my hometown, to the waiting arms of my father.

The proverbial Lamp I still hold flickers, but it is but a beacon in embers now, for it had spent its luminance in the darkness of human weakness and failures, it beamed across the ocean of ignorance and lost hope, it trailed the path of many adventures and discoveries, and it kept vigil in the night while I slept.

And what would my father say? He meets me, embraces me, and calls everyone. “Kill the fattest calf! Let us rejoice.”

San Vicente is my home. It is the bastion of my hopes and ideals. At the far end on entering the old church is written on the altar, faded by the elements of time and pleading hands of devotees, Ur-urayenka Anakko – I am waiting for you my child. 

When the world is being ripped by conflicts or pampered with material progress, when mankind shudders at the splitting of the atom or the breaking of the code of life, when the future is viewed with high rise edifices or clouded by greenhouse gases – my town becomes more than ever relevant to the cause for which it has stood through the centuries - the sanctuary of idealism in a troubled world, home of hundreds of professionals in many fields of human endeavor.

“Kill the fattest calf,” I hear my father shout with joy. It is celebration. It is a symbol of achievement more than I deserve. But my feelings is that I am standing on behalf of my colleagues for I am but an emissary. Out there in peace and trials, in villages and metropolises, in all endeavors and walks of life, many “Vincentians” made their marks, either recognized on the stage or remembered on stone on which their names are carved. I must say, it is an honor and privilege that I am here in humility to represent them that I may convey their unending faith and trust to our beloved hometown.

The world has changed tremendously, vastly, since I passed under the town arch to meet the world some fifty years ago. I have met wise men who asked the famous question “Quo vadis?” -where are you going? I can only give a glimpse from the eye of a teacher, far for the probing mind of Alvin Toffler in Future Shock, or those of Naisbitt and Aburdane, renowned modern prophets. Teachers as I know, and having been trained as one, see the world as it is lived; they make careful inferences, and take a bird’s eyeview cautiously. They are conveyors of knowledge, and even with modern teaching tools and communication technology, cannot even qualify as chroniclers, nay less of forecasters. I have always strived to master the art of foretelling the future, but frankly I can only see it from atop a misty mountain. How I wish too, that I can fully witness the fruits of the seed of knowledge a teacher has sown in the mind of the young.

Limited my experience may be, allow me to speak my mind about progress and developments in the fifty years I was away from home, but on the other side of midnight, so to speak.

1. The monster that Frankenstein made lurks in nuclear stockpiles, chides with scientists tinkering with life, begging to give him a name and a home.

2. Our blue planet has an ugly shade of murk and crimson – fire consuming the forests, erosion eating out the land, polar ice shrinking, rising sea flooding the shorelines, and gas emission   boring a hole in its jacket.

3. One race one nation equals globalization. How we have taken over evolution in our hands. We are playing God, is Paradise Lost Part 2 in the offing?

4. The world is wired, it travels fast on two feet – communication and transportation. The world has shrunk into a village. Homogenization is the death sentence amid a bed of roses for mankind.

5. Man-induced phenomena are too difficult to separate from those of nature. We take the latter as an excuse of our follies, a rationalization that runs counter to be rational. Only the human species has both the capability to build or destroy – and yet we love to destroy what we build.

6. The dangerous game of numbers is a favorite game, and our spaceship is getting overloaded. Man’s needs, more so man’s want, become burgeoning load of Mother Earth, now sick and aging. Will Pied Piper ever come back and take our beloved young ones away from us, as it did in Hamlyn many years ago?

7. Conscience, conscience, where is spirituality that nourishes it. Where have all the religious teachings gone? Governance – where is the family, the home? Peace and order – Iraq, Afghanistan – another Korea, another Vietnam, only in another place, in another time. And now social unrest is sweeping over North Africa and the Middle East.

8. Janus is progress, and progress is Janus. It is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It is The Prince and the Pauper. Capitalism has happy and sad faces – the latter painted in pain and sadness on millions all over the world. It is inequity that makes the world poor; we have more than enough food, clothing, shelter, and energy for everybody. What ideology can save the world other than capitalism?

As I grew older I did not only learn to adjust with the realities of life as I encountered it but to grasp its meaning from the points of view of famous philosophers and writers. I studied it with the famous lines from William Blake’s famous poem, Auguries of Innocence.

To wit.

“To see the world in a grain of sand;
And a Heaven a wild flower;
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.”

- William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

If ever I have ventured into becoming a redeemer of sort, armed with a pen in hand, I too, have learned from Blake’s verse of the way man should view the world in all its magnanimity yet in simplicity. If ever I have set foot to reach the corners of the Earth, and failed, I am consoled by the humble representation of “a grain of sand” that speaks of universal truth and values.

And beauty? If I have not found it in a garden of roses, I dare not step on a flowering weed. And posterity and eternity? They are all ensconced in periodicity, a divine accident of existence – to say that each and every one of us is here in this world by chance – an unimaginable chance – at “a certain time and place” which - and I believe - has a purpose in whatever and however one lives his life. But I would say that a lifetime is all it takes “to see the world” and be part of it. It is a lifetime that we realize the true meaning of beauty, experience “infinity and eternity”. Lifetime is a daily calendar of victories and defeats.

While the world goes around and around . . .

The world like in Aristotle’s time continue to struggle with the preservation of values; the species will continue to evolve as postulated by Darwin; culture will express itself more fully since the first painting of early man dwelling in the caves of Lasceaux in France.

Trade and commerce will continue to progress, reaches a plateau and declines - a normal curve that goes with the rise and fall of civilizations. Yet leaders do not see it that way. Not even the Utopia of conquerors like Alexander the Great whose global economic vision two thousand five hundred years ago is basically the same as the great powers of today - United States, European Union, ASEAN.

The great religions will continue to bring man to his knees and look into heavens amidst knowledge revolution and growing complexity of living, Man’s infinitesimal mind continues to probe the universe. Never has man been so busy, so bothered, so confused, yet so determined than ever before, trying to fill up God’s Seventh Day.

As I go on reflecting I came across the book of Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, 1994. He warns us succinctly.

“This world, which appears to be a great workshop in which knowledge is developed by man – which appears as progress and civilization, as a modern system of communication, as a structure of democratic freedom without any limitations – this world is not capable of making man happy."

- Pope John Paul II, On the Threshold of Hope

Now I am home, my father,in my hometown. I do only wish for comfort. I just want to thank you for you have taught me and instilled in me the spirit of virtue and fortitude. Thank you for making me a Vincentian.

Let me sleep now in your arms. ~

Bathtub - A Place of Great Discovery

Bathtub - A Place of Great Discovery

"Would there be a place best to play and be free,

and let all summers pass in brief?" avr   

Dr Abe V Rotor

 Paul, Ronald and Jaja, at home in San Vicente (Ilocos Sur)

How missed Archimedes in his law of buoyancy,

"Eureka! Eureka!" (I found it! I found it!)

For the value of gold and silver, yes, but didn't see

Children growing up in a bathtub every minute;

More so, their joy and content that capture the sea

In a crude receptacle of a sailing ship;

And would there be a place best to play and be free,

And let all summers pass in brief?   

"Eureka! Eureka!" resounds in the halls of history,

Loudest in a bathtub though, not in the street;

And if someday sages come to liven that memory -

These kids once that the world is glad to meet. ~

Curtain Lights (Creative Photography)

Creative Photography: 

Curtain Lights

Photos by Dr Abe V Rotor

Ateneo de Manila University

 

All the neon lights in the world a far cry

to Nature's curtain, the aurora!

shifting from pole to pole, lighting the sky,

in refrain of Handel's Alleluia.

(Aurora borealis and Auroira australis, northern and southern curtain of light in the sky, respectively)

Humanities weaves a beautiful tapestry of humanity

Humanities weaves a beautiful tapestry of humanity
Dr Abe V Rotor

“Son, what do you remember as the happiest moment in your life?” asked a dying old man at his deathbed.

“When we went fishing, dad, and caught fireflies on our way back to camp.”

“Thank you.” And the old man smiled his last. It was a parting sealed by sweet memory of childhood.

Authors children: Leo and Marlo at the National Jamboree, Mt Makiling, Laguna

Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder

Humanities brings out the sense of awe and wonder, specially to the young, of the things around , of life processes and cycles, the passing of seasons and ages. It makes one aware of even the minute existence of things, the transformation of the ordinary into something beautiful.


Wonder the summer night, camping by a lake, home outside of home,
no roof but the sky, no walls, no gate, stars and fireflies mingle as one;
Wonder the breeze blow and weave through the trees, comb the grass,
carry into the sky kites of many colors and make greeting the rainbow;

“The sense of wonder is indestructible, that it would last throughout life, an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years.” Says Rachel Carson, author of an all-time favorite novel, Silent Spring. It is true, the sense of wonder prepares the young to face and conquer the world.

Humanities builds on the framework of truth and values

Even with few words the mind is set to explore, giving way to imagination beyond mere reason. Brevity is the framework of the mind, the heart and spirit in the Lord’s Prayer and the Gettysburg Address of America’s most loved leader, Abraham Lincoln. It is also a path to humility in greatness, a union of the classical and the contemporary.

If the story of the Creation can be told in 400 words, if the Ten Commandments contain 297 words, if Lincoln’s immortal Gettysburg Address was only 266 words, if an entire concept of freedom was set in the Declaration of Independence in about 1,300 words – it is up to some of us to use fewer words, and thus save the time energy, vitality, and nerves of those who must read or listen. (Jerome P Fleishman) 

Humanities Today by the author jointly with KM Doria and published by C and E for the new curriculum, is now available at the publisher's outlets nationwide 

Humanities brings out the human spirit
Guernica, a plaza mural made by the greatest modern painter Pablo Picasso, ignited popular revolt against the Nazi regime. On the huge mural were embedded hidden images that conveyed principles of truth and freedom.

Similarly, in an earlier era, our own hero Juan Luna painted Spolarium, (centerpiece of the National Museum), a mural depicting the Filipinos under Spanish rule suffering like the gladiators during the Roman times, a visual message for the people to realize their plight. Later Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere, one of the greatest books ever written in the category of War and Peace by Tolstoy, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, extolled the coming of a new world order – post-colonialism and the birth of new nations.

Humanities brings tranquility in crisis

It may be strange to know that Winston Churchill, the great English hero of WWII, still found time to paint by the bank of the Thames. Arts bring tranquility in times of crisis, and elevate the senses on a higher vantage plane of vision. Putting down his brush and easel, he would then return to the battlefield with greater revolve to save Great Britain from the ravaging war. And to a greater surprise, what was it that Churchill painted? Peace.

It was the other way around five hundred years earlier when the great Michelangelo who single handedly painted the huge ceiling of the Sistine Chapel would descend from the scaffolding, exchanged his paint brush with sword and fought side-by-side his benefactor the Pope, and when victory was apparent would climb back to finish his masterpiece. The result: the biggest composite mural that brought God, the angels and saints, down to earth., making the Sistine a microcosm of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Humanities is guardian of movements and schools

From the paintings of early man in the Lascaux caves in France, to the surrealism of Salvador Dali, humanities has kept faithful to the evolution of human creativity expressed in various aspects of human life, pouring out from palaces and cathedrals to the villages and streets. For arts no longer belong to selected societies and cultures. Impressionism took over Romanticism and translated Realism for the grassroots, subsequently bypassing standards of perception, and permeating into the unconscious seeking expression and catharsis. Expressionism founded by Vincent Van Gogh opened a wider door to abstractionism that subsequently spilled into post-modernism.

“What’s abstract? a young art enthusiast
once asked, dutifully I answered:
“When you look through the window of a car
running so fast that views are blurred.”

“What’s expressionism?” an elder one asked;
“When the car stops, or just about,
yet still running inside, seeking, searching
for the spring of life to pour out.”

“And what is impressionism?” a third asked,
and I said: It’s sitting on a fence -
On one side Amorsolo, the other Ocampo,
It’s the spirit of art past and hence. ~
 
Humanities aims at goodness and peace

Propagandism and license are perhaps the greatest enemy of Humanities. The world plunged into two global wars, followed by half a century of cold war - the polarization into opposite ideologies that froze mankind at the brink of Armageddon, awakening Humanities to a new dimension - the search for peace.

And as in the Renaissance, Humanities centered on rebirth and renewal of man’s faith in his destiny. Peace reigned the longest in contemporary times in spite of local conflicts. And for a century or so Humanities blossomed into wide popularity and acclaim, and rich diversity today, dominating media, commerce, industry and in practically all aspects of life, which often venture on the boundaries of humanities itself, among them pornography, religious extrememism, aculturation, among others.

Humanities is keeper and pioneer of the arts

Humanities gave the world the finest of human achievements and continues to do so - timeless classics from novel to cinema, painting to photography, colonial design to high rise structuyres, stage play to TV and Internet show. Man’s glory is akin to humanities - Venus de Milo, Taj Mahal, Borobodor, Eiffel Tower, Hallelujah, Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story, The Little Prince. to name a few.

Humanities discovered superstars like Elvis Priestley and Michael Jackson, and our own local sensations, Leah Salonga and Charisse Pempengco.

Humanities faces challenge of the cyber age

But arts has also plunged into a deep and unknown global pool bringing across the world cultures heretofore unknown and appreciated, and riding on postmodernism into the chartless world of cyberspoace. Which leads us to a puzzle, Quo vadis, Humanus?

Humanities elevates reverence for life and Nature  

And yet humanities is anchored on a strong foundation, none other than the place of his birth and his ascension into Homo sapiens - Nature.  Reverence to Nature is reverence for life, the highest expression of man through humanities.  From  this relationship he finds inspiration in his arts and technology, in seeking knowledge and wisdom, and in enhancing the unity and harmony of creation, and among mankind into a living network. 

Humanities is the custodian of the network of humanity

We are the World – the song that united the world by the compassion it created for the dying is perhaps the greatest humanitarian movement in recent times, originally USA to Africa in the eighties, and was repeated during the Haiti disaster twenty years later. Translated by different races, beliefs, ideologies into a common call, it brought consciousness to the whole world, that humanity is a network, a closely knit fabric beautifully expressed in the lyrics of the song -

There comes a time
When we heed a certain call,
When the world must come together as one.
There are people dying
And it’s time to lend a hand to life,
The greatest gift of all

[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day
Just you and me .

It is a most fitting tribute to mankind through this song, that no man is an island, that when somebody dies, a part inside each of us also dies, and for every man’s victory, we too, feel triumphant. Humanity is a beautiful tapestry, and Humanities is Arachne on the loom.~.

“Humanities holds the greatest treasure of mankind.“
- AVR

Nationally renowned authors, poets and dramatists, among them Ofelia Dimalanta, Sedfrey Ordoñez, Jose Villa

In summary, Humanities

- is a beautiful tapestry of humanity
- brings out the sense of awe and wonder
- builds on the framework of truth and values
- brings out the human spirit
- brings tranquility in crisis
- is guardian of movements and schools
- aims at goodness and peace
- is keeper and pioneer of the arts
- faces challenge of the cyber age
- elevates reverence for life and Nature   
- is the custodian of the network of humanity 
- holds the greatest treasure of mankind

Literature is the people’s collective masterpiece, their imprimatur.

Literature is the people’s collective masterpiece, their imprimatur. 
Literature is the mouthpiece through which the people narrate their stories from one generation to another.  It is also an agent of change, never submissive to the whims of history; it is a pathfinder, a sailing vessel which ushers the "tides of change." 
Philippine Literature Today by AV Rotor and KM Doria, C&E Publication 2014

 Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

About the Cover

The concept of literature by the artist* is viewed from classic-tradition to post-modern movement, which spans over a long period and vast undefined area. It leads to the question, “What is literature today – Philippine literature to be specific?”

Literature, akin to the definition of good government, is of, for and by the people. As a binding force of a culture, literature is about people, their history, their beliefs and ideas.

Literature is the mouthpiece of the people that carries their stories alive and beautiful from generation to generation. It is the people’s collective masterpiece, their imprimatur. Literature is agent of change, never passive, never submissive; it is a pathfinder, a sailing vessel that brings in “the promise of the tides.”

The artist’s idea is in seeing Rizal alive today through his ideals bearing fruits in a free world, Lola Basyang keeping children happy like in his time with mythology’s eternal magic, Balagtas in a new Renaissance in cinemas and the Internet, and Leona Florentino, the muse of Philippine literature as the keeper of the “literary flame.”

- Leo Carlo Rojas Rotor, BSFA-ID (UST), MIT (AdMU),

        Literature is the people’s collective masterpiece,

 their imprimatur.      

1.

Three words for a book title, Philippine Literature Today,

The essence of three elements: space, subject and time;

Yet subjective and elusive to the critical eye and mind 

But courageous at the frontline, gentle over our clime.

2.

What is literature to the old is also that to the young;

Bridge of generations, continuum of race and culture;

Heroes of old, heroes of new, and those awaiting, too,

Living book, not archive or litany, to love and treasure. 

3.

Dawn the prelude to sunrise, brings in a new sentinel,

New to the learned, to the unlearned, to the new born,

Sunset not the end of day and coming peace of night;

But rage, for to settle down is sin when the flag is torn.

4.

Wonder the sun rising late and dying young in smog;

Wonder a high rise cast its shadow to hide a shanty;

Wonder ostentatious shows, courtesy of the needy;

Wonder literature thriving on romantic dichotomy. 

5.

Icons, masters, the pedestal too crowded for a few;

Names branded by fraternity, laurel or olive wreath;

Vanity and fancy, in language beautiful in the clouds,

Cordon sanitaire that wisdom is barred to bequeath. 

6.

While the world moves on by leaps from a small step,

In quantum of knowledge beyond the brain can hold;

Cyberspace the blackboard that was, now unlimited,

Makes the old torch a lightning bolt its power untold. 

7.

Literature its profile from Baby TV to Disney to HBO

Its domain epics and tales to history, science and ad;

Access on the palm and wrist, biometrics and robotics;

Quo vadis literatura? The canons are now old and sad.

8.

Talk about Black Death, talk about Ebola, both dreaded;

Angels and astronauts; about Noah’s flood and Yolanda;

Tenants in the field and condominiums they don’t own;

Man-made islands and deserts, the mall and talipapa.

9.

No part truly speaks of the whole, comprehensive it may,

For literature defies science; unlike happiness multiplies

When divided in the magic of synergy and imagination

Above reason like rainbow that often comes in disguise.

10. 

Pathfinders at the heels of the world’s men of letters, 

Universal truth in Rizal, genius put to test in martyrdom;

Reyes the Lola Basyang, relived fairies and the dwarfs

By the hearth and tamed the giants in faraway kingdom.

11.

The doyen, Leona in Philippine poetry past, preserved

The endangered classics of the west tuned in vernacular;

Balagtas brought on stage Shakespearean drama alive;

Four pillars stand over our literature like shining star. 

12.

To our shores came Aesop, Homer, the Grimm brothers,

Stories from far north and south, and across the globe,

In times war and peace, in colonial days and in liberty;

An invisible hand guided our destiny from the cold. 

13.

What now from millenniums past, in postmodern age -

The atom a ticking bomb, the life’s secret in DNA code?

The world has shrunk into a gadget, now owned by all

At fingertip’s command, at anytime, by young and old. 

14.

The second Big Bang that in cyberspace never sleeps,

Rousing and prodding, intruding, unyielding to our right,

Where computer and literature on busy feet moving,

Like a river of no return, rushing aimlessly in the night.

15.

Humbly this book presents a less trodden way, perhaps nil;

Footsteps it lays ahead on a long journey on the horizon

By pioneers unknown, untested, theirs not of the glory

             But courage and joy beating a path to a promising zone. ~            

 ---------------------

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio. 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday

Signature of time passing.

 Signature of time passing.
 Dr Abe V Rotor

How time flies, we hear people say;

maybe, but it leaves something:

like first smile, first word, first step, ,

each a signature of time passing.

 Weaning leaves the infant behind. 

First birthday is full of love and affection.

 

From the confines of home to the open arms of Nature.

Bridging three generations in a row.

Youngest visitor suspends work momentarily. 

Family reunion strengthens bonding up to the third generation (and beyond), keeps distance (even overseas) within reach, and gives a sense of comfort and security.

Bioethics - the Ultimate Expression of Values

In loving memory of my son, Vicente Paolo 
Dr Abe V Rotor

Paolo drew one, last deep breath and held it there as if forever. His eyes were

wide open, glassy and welled with tears. His pale lips went agape as his whole body tensed. That was the arrival of the inevitable moment when he gave up fighting for life.

  Paolo   

Immediately, doctors, working with quick hands put the boy’s body under the command of modern machines like: a high voltage cardiac resuscitator; a lung machine that works on the principle of our diaphragm; and electronic gadgets to monitor pulse rate, body temperature and blood pressure. The sight of wires and tubes all over the young patient, with doctors working double time, reminds one of the desperate, but futile, effort to save the mortally wounded President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, in a Dallas hospital on November 22, 1963.

      This situation also reminds one of the celebrated Karen Quinlan case. This is about a young woman, who remained in a state of coma at a US hospital for more than a year.  Since her condition was not improving, she was unplugged from her life-sustaining machines. The case became an issue of a long court battle.  In the end, the patient was allowed to die, unplugged from her machines. 

      The court’s decision leaned heavily on the principles of bioethics. These principles continue to influence similar cases today, some 30 years later. Bioethics, the ethics of the life sciences, offers guidelines for dealing with life-and-death decisions. The ethical principles involved are expressions of values, and the humane foundations of moral values.

      In both the cases of Paolo and Karen, we ask? What is clinical death? Is the prolongation of life with machines (despite certification of a hopeless condition), justifiable?  In short, is keeping people alive through artificial means ethical? 

      By analyzing the interrelationships of ethical principles, we conclude that the human being must be respected. Allow him to die peacefully and let the bereaved family realize God’s sovereignty over life and all creation.

Bioethics and Social Justice

      Outside the hospital, people needing immediate treatment, are waiting for their turn.  There are those, mostly poor, who have been waiting silently in prolonged agony. In remote towns and villages, it is considered a luxury to have a doctor around. The medical care most poor people know are unreliable, often associated with superstitious beliefs. What an extreme scenario from that of Paolo and Karen!

      Thus bioethics and social justice must go hand in hand as we view its application upon the millions of poor people who are dying without benefit of good medicine. Like in war, precious medicine is applied on the potentially salvageable, and denied for those who are dead or beyond help.

      Yet there are those who feel privileged with “over treatment”. This is why we question the morality of cryogenics (dealing with the effects of very low temperatures), its lavishness and futuristic goals.  There are over a hundred rich people in America today whose bodies lie in cryogenic tanks, awaiting the day when medicine shall have found a way to revive them.

 ------------------------------------------------------

      “In the real sense, the practice of virtue is what morality is all about, meaning lived morality, the morality that leads to self-realization and ultimately, happiness.  After all, virtue is the road to happiness.”

                            

   Fr. Fausto Gomez, OP, STD, Relevant Principles in Bioethics

-------------------------------------------------------

      Here is another example of social injustice. The US spends US$1.5 billion daily on healthcare, even as more than a quarter of its population are deprived of medical benefit. One can imagine the tremendous contribution to world peace and improvement in the quality of human life, if only a portion of this wealth and that used for resurrecting life is diverted to the plight of the world’s poor.

Bioethics and Disease Prevention

      Dr. Mita Pardo de Tavera is a doctor who believes in the primary health care approach of involving people’s full participation. She raised ethics of  appropriability disease prevention as superior to its cure. This approach should be part of a program to eradicate diseases such as tuberculosis. The solution is not to be dependent merely on medical approaches, but on sound socio-economic programs as well that deal with illiteracy and unemployment. 

Pillars of Bioethics

      The broad domain of bioethics rests on four pillars, as follows:

§  Truth

§  Compassion

§  Beneficence

§  Justice

      Goodness springs from every righteous person when dealing with questions on bioethics.  It is conscience, that inner voice which makes us conscious of guilt.

      But how good is good enough?  To answer this question, we have to qualify conscience as formative conscience.  Fr. Tamerlane Lana OP STD, rector of the University of Santo Tomas, emphasizes that the formation of conscience is a life-long task, especially for professionals whose decisions directly affect the lives of people. The goal is for them to attain a well-informed conscience, which is upright and truthful, and that does not rely merely on acquired knowledge. It has to be a conscience guided by the spiritual nature of man.

Growing Application of Bioethics

      Today, with man’s growing affluence we find bioethics as part of the expanding fields of science and technology, areas that have direct consequences affecting human life.  Thus, we hear people raising questions of morality and ethics in various areas such as:

§  Euthanasia.

§  Hospice management.

§  Organ transplantation and rehabilitation.

§  Contraception, abortion and sterilization.

§  Social justice in the allocation of healthcare resources.

§  The Human Genome Project (HGP), and genome mapping.

§  Genetic engineering and human cloning.

§  In vitro fertilization (test tube babies).

§  Surrogate motherhood.

§  Menopausal childbirth technology.

§  Induced multiple births.

§  Aging and extension of longevity.

§  Pollution and global warming.

§  Ecosystems destruction.

§  Thermonuclear, biological and chemical warfare.

      These areas of concern in bioethics are expanded into medical ethics for doctors, lawyers and scientists to know. These include the following cases: 

1.     Food Additives and Contamination.

      Vital issues of discussion are the manufacture and distribution of food laced with harmful substances like potassium bromide in bread, sulfite in white sugar, nitrate in meat, glacial acetic acid in vinegar, monosodium glutamate (MSG) in cooked food, and aspartame in softdrinks.  Many of these substances are linked to cancer, diabetes and loss of memory.

2.     Ecological Bioethics.

      “Is it a sin to cut a tree?” a student asked this author.

      This is a bioethical question. It is not the cutting of the tree, per se, that causes the “sin”. Rather, it is the destruction of the ecosystem, the disruption of the functioning of natural laws resulting from the tree cutting, that is considered unethical.  

      The unabated logging of the watersheds of the once beautiful city by the sea – Ormoc City in Southern Leyte -  caused massive mudflows sweeping the central part of the community and killing hundreds of residents. Yet the ethics and morality of the actions of the loggers were never questioned.

       In the realm of theological sciences, this tragedy is akin to the paradigm of salvation.  According of Fr. Percy Bacani CICM, it is a sin to harm the environment, because it causes people to suffer. To find salvation, the culprits of the Ormoc tragedy should plow back their ill-gotten wealth for rebuilding the community they destroyed. The morality of this paradigm touches deep down at the roots of moral philosophy.

Five Principle in Bioethics

      Basic questions are raised where bioethics and moral philosophy are involved. These questions may be categorized under five general types.

§  When are we responsible for the consequences of our actions? (Principle of indirect voluntary).

§  How far may we participate in the performance of evil actions done by others? (Principle of cooperation).

§  When may we ethically perform an action from which results in two effects, good and evil? (Principle of double effect).

§  Are we the lords of our lives and all creation, or only custodians thereof? (Principle of stewardship).

§  Is the good of a part subordinated to the good of the whole? (Principle of totality).

      These general ethical principles serve as guides in analyzing situations, making decisions, or forecasting the consequences of one’s actions. These principles are used in law, philosophy, theology, management and other disciplines. The values on which they are founded which, in turn, provide the virtues that guide our actions, remain unchanged.

      Why do we not always follow the dictates of our conscience? “It is because we are weak, or blinded by sin or vice. Or because we lack virtue and fortitude,” says Fr. Fausto Gomez OP, regent and professor of bioethics at the UST College of Medicine.

      Man has yet to learn to avoid evil, and to do good.  Temptation leads one to sin, but so does complacency and inaction.

      On that fateful day, Paolo my hero, was the focus of a most crucial decision the doctors, my family and I had to make. When we made it, the life-sustaining machines were finally removed that day in 1983. Paolo died in my arms. He was my son. ~  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A doctor is a man who writes prescriptions till the patient either dies or is cured by nature. — William Broome

--------------------------------------

Young fronds of coconut are offered on Palm Sunday. Thousands of coconut seedlings and trees are sacrificed, leading to the death of thousands of trees on a single occasion every year. Estimated loss runs to millions of pesos. The productive life of a coconut may extend to fifty years.  

The value of nuts and other products (tuba, midrib, husk, leaves, firewood, charcoal) produced by a single tree in a year is between P1000 to P5000. The same occasion endangers other species such as buri, anahaw, and oliva or cycad which are living fossils, and are now endangered species.  


Food additives like MSG (monosodium glutamate), artificial sugars (aspartame, nutrasweet, saccharin and other brands) destroy human health, in fact cause premature aging and early death.  

Intensive monocropping depletes soil fertility, and destroys physical properties, such as tilth, water retention, organic matter content, which are necessary to good production and sustainable productivity.~

-----------

"When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect…. That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics." -  Aldo Leopold (1949)