Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. The maiming of the body is altogether unlawful andopposed to justice unless it be by way of necessary surgerycompetently performed, or by way of punishment for crime, underpublic authority. It seems clear that public authority may inflictmutilation of members as a penalty for heinous crime; the sameauthority may lawfully take a criminal's life, and mutilationis a much less terrible punishment than death.
2. It is not contrary to justice for parents to punishtheir children corporally by way of needful correction. But noperson may justly strike or punish another corporally unless he hasjurisdiction over him.
3. Competent public authority may lawfully detain orimprison a person by way of punishment, or even as a precautionagainst impending evil, provided this be done according to theorder of justice. On occasion, it is permissible for an individualto restrain a person temporarily, as, for example, to prevent hisjumping to death from a high place, or to hold him back from doingviolent injury to someone unable to defend himself.
4. An unjust act of injuring another in his body (bymaiming, striking, fettering, restraining) is made worse if theperson injured is one to whom the offender owes a special reverenceor respect, or with whom he is connected by some relationship.
"Shun too great a desire for knowledge, for in it there is much fretting and delusion. Intellectuals like to appear learned and to be called wise. Yet there are many things the knowledge of which does little or no good to the soul, and he who concerns himself about other things than those which lead to salvation is very unwise.
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Thomas á Kempis
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"Whoever wants to stand alone without the support of a master and guide will be like the tree that stands alone in a field without a proprietor. No matter how much the tree bears, passers-by will pick the fruit before it ripens.
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St John of the Cross, OCD - Doctor of the Church
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"For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God?"
Thomas á Kempis
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