Max Charlesworth

Maxwell John "Max" Charlesworth (30 December 1925 – 2 June 2014) was an Australian philosopher. He taught and wrote on a wide range of areas including the role of the Church in a liberal democratic society; Australian Aboriginal culture and religions; and modern science’s role in society.

Born in Numurkah, Victoria, Charlesworth was educated at Assumption College, Kilmore. He studied at the University of Melbourne, gaining a Bachelor of Arts in 1946 and a Masters of Arts in 1948. After spending two years recovering from tuberculosis, Charlesworth continued his studies in Belgium, receiving his Doctorate in Philosophy from Université Catholique de Louvain in 1955.

Over the course of his 60-year career, Charlesworth taught and wrote on a wide range of areas including the role of the Church in a liberal democratic society; Australian Aboriginal culture and religions; and modern science’s role in society. 

Although raised Catholic, Charlesworth supported voluntary euthanasia. “It’s not ‘playing God’ to seek freely to control the direction of my life,” he wrote, “and it’s not ‘playing God’ to seek freely to control the mode of my dying. For a Christian, God is not honoured by a person (made in the ‘image’ of God) abdicating autonomy and freedom of will and passively submitting to ‘fate’.” (quoted in Dutney, 1997).

(via Wikipedia)

Bayertz, K. & Charlesworth, M. (1998). Sanctity of Life and Human Dignity. Bioethics 12(2):177.

Dutney, A. (1997). Christian support for voluntary euthanasia. Monash Bioethics Review 16(2): 15-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03351206