Moral Principle of Totality and Integrity
Definition
The human body is an integral part of the human person and is therefore worthy of human dignity. It must be kept whole. No body part should be removed, mangled or dibilitated unless doing so is necessary for the health of a more essential body part or the body of a whole. An unessential or redundant body part may be removed for the good of another person.
Explanation
Human nature is an integration of body and spirit. These two dimensions can never be separated (in fact, separation of the spirit from the body is the definition of death). The human body shares in the dignity of the human person. To dismember the body or to otherwise deface it abuses that dignity by treating the human person as a machine or as a thing to be used and discarded.
Applications
- Surgeries that needlessly remove body parts or organs are immoral
- Tattoos and piercings are not inherently immoral but they may be immoral if they deface the body by quantity or content.
- Torture is a moral evil because it seeks to dis-integrate the body and the spirit
- Self-mutilation is self-hatred expressed through spite of the body
- That chemical contraception effectively shuts down a healthy bodily system is part of what makes it immoral.
- Even if the pro-choice argument that an embryo is part of the woman’s body rather than an independent human person is true, it should not be removed except when its presence endangers the woman’s life.