Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 205 : Seeking the Spiritual Side of Dementia

As the symptoms and complications of dementia unfold, the challenges we face from the disease can unexpectedly become an invitation from God.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 28, 2022Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Dementia, Suffering

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 187 : The “Quality of Life” Error

Our focus should be on the benefits and burdens of a proposed medical intervention rather than on trying to impose our own conclusion that certain individuals no longer have enough value or meaning in their lives.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 29, 2021Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Disabilities and the Disabled, End-of-Life Issues, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 176: A Hundred Love Letters

Each of our loving human gestures speaks volumes about the singular power of love to overcome fear, and to strengthen us in adversity.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationFebruary 28, 2020Death and Dying, Suffering, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 173: Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred

We need to attend carefully to the graced realities we regularly handle lest we end up squandering or losing our sense of the sacred.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2019Abortion, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Disabilities and the Disabled, Imposing Our Beliefs, Universal Morality, Sacraments, Medical Profession — Ethics and Pastoral-Spiritual, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 171: Palliative Sedation While Approaching Death

When we find ourselves nailed to our hospital bed, it can become an important personal moment for us to engage the possibility of a spiritual transformation opening before us.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationSeptember 30, 2019Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Proportionate and Disproportionate Means, Suffering, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 130: On Aging Gracefully

Our later years can powerfully provoke us to come to terms with our destiny and with higher truths.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 30, 2016Suffering, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 115: Esteeming Our Elders

Compassionately attending to the needs of the elderly draws generations together and builds solidarity.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 30, 2015Caring for the Elderly and Infirm

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 088: Talking Americans Down from the Assisted-Suicide Ledge

Suicide hotlines are open 24 hours a day because we seek to prevent as many deaths as we can. We treat as heroes those who walk along bridges or climb tall buildings and try to talk people down.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 30, 2012Suffering, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Physician-Assisted Suicide

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 074: Bringing Christ to the Clinic

The physician's boldness and unflagging concern for his patient played an important role in bringing Christ into a situation where His healing graces were needed, where even the priest alone probably could not have succeeded.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2011Medical Profession — Ethics and Pastoral-Spiritual, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Sacraments, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 068: Working Through a Hard Death

…suffering can make us bitter or it can make us better, depending upon how we respond to it and use it to enter into deeper union with the Lord who suffered and died a hard death for us.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationFebruary 28, 2011Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 064: Defending the Dignity of Those with Dementia

When our ability to think rationally or choose freely becomes clouded or even eliminated by dementia, we still remain at root the kind of creature who is rational and free, and the bearer of inalienable human dignity.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 30, 2010Death and Dying, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Suffering, Dementia, Disabilities and the Disabled, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 057: Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope

Fostering a humanly enriching environment for those facing death often means giving explicit attention to human presence and human contact, even in the midst of a plethora of technology that may surround a patient.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMarch 30, 2010Suffering, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Artificial Nutrition and Hydration, Medical Profession — Ethics and Pastoral-Spiritual, End-of-Life Issues, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

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