The significance of the soul as a principle of life in the pro-life arguments . Implications for the euthanasia dispute from the perspective of Thomistic philosophy

The human being is a soul-body unity, according to the reflection of classical realist philosophy, represented by (among others) Aristotle, and in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church. The aim of this chapter is to justify the rationale, drawing on Thomistic philosophy, provided by the appeal to the concept of soul in the pro-life arguments, with particular reference to the dispute over euthanasia. Among the discussed euthanasia-related issues was the problem of so-called brain death.
The introduction gives a cursory overview of the relationship between philosophy and the natural sciences and discusses how Thomism portrays human being and a soul.. The novelty of the paper lies in confronting this knowledge with views that are nowadays quite widely accepted among the pro-life groups. The research problem undertaken in the chapter is related to the attitude clearly visible among some Polish and foreign pro-life organisations. For the purposes of the research, this issue was narrowed down to Catholic activists in Poland. Among these pro-life people, it was diagnosed that in their public activism they admit to their Catholic faith, which assumes the existence of an immortal soul in man, while in their educational and popularisation activities they do not refer to the soul as a principle of life. Several reasons are presented that help to explain this state of affairs, as well as an assessment of the phenomenon from a perspective of the Catholic morality. 

The chapter also includes recommendations on what courses of action could be taken to spread the significance of the soul in the pro-life argumentation among the catechists and Catholic pro-life advocates in Poland. In this section, a proposal for a didactic method is described, which is aimed at people for whom the philosophical concept of the soul is alien. The proposed approach is supposed to complement the message of pro-life organisations, whose work the author of the chapter appreciates for the sacrifices and efforts they make.