Morality in Plague Time: AIDS in Theological Perspective Lecture 2: Obligations — Caring for the Sick

Nagel Thomas The View From Nowhere (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 202.

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir “The Adventure of the Dying Detective,” in The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. II (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1930), p. 933. This passage was first called to my notice in a letter to the editor by Warren Boroson, New York Times, Nov. 9, 1987, p. 26.

Defoe Daniel A Journal of the Plague Year Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1908). Everyman's Library Edition, pp. 269–272.

Letter 228 in Augustine Saint Letters, Volume V (New York: Fathers of the Church, Inc., 1956), pp. 141–151. Citations in the paragraphs that follow will be given by page number in parentheses within the body of the text.

I overlook the fact that Paul, as one who claimed to be an apostle, may in fact have occupied a position unlike anyone else in Damascus. Augustine simply assimilates Paul's circumstances to those of a later period in the Church's history, after the development of certain offices. No doubt Honoratus would have agreed.

Augustine St. Confessions, translated by Rex Warner (New York: New American Library, 1963), X, 29, 31, 37.

Origins, 17 (Dec. 24, 1987), pp. 481–489.

Origins, p. 485.

Zuger , Abigail M.D. , and Miles Steven H. M.D. “Physicians, AIDS, and Occupational Risk: Historic Traditions and Ethical Obligations,” Journal of the American Medical Association. 258 (Oct. 9, 1987), pp. 1926f.

Journal of the American Medical Association., p. 1927.

Journal of the American Medical Association.

Kass Leon Toward a More Natural Science (New York: Free Press, 1985), p. 242.

Toward a More Natural Science, p. 243.

Pellegrino Edmund D. M.D. “Altruism, Self-interest, and Medical Ethics,” Journal of the American Medical Association, 258 (Oct. 9, 1987), pp. 1939f. Citations of Pellegrino in the paragraphs that follow will be taken from this two page essay.

In addition to Pellegrino, cf. May William F. The Physician's Covenant (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1983), pp. 112ff.

May, p. 128. Further citations of May will be identified by page number in parentheses within the body of the text.

Pellegrino p. 1939. Italics added.

Zuger , and Miles p. 1925.

Cf. Nagel p. 204: “The appearance of supererogation in a morality is a recognition from an impersonal standpoint of the difficulties with which that standpoint has to contend in becoming motivationally effective in the real life of beings of whom it is only one aspect.”

My thanks to David H. Smith for his comments on an earlier draft of this essay.