Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 199: Too Much Morphine?

Careful attention to pain management is of paramount importance in end-of-life care and supports both the patient and the family in a dignified way during the dying process.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 31, 2022Death and Dying, End-of-Life Issues, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Proportionate and Disproportionate Means, 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 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 163: The Welcome Outreach of Perinatal Hospice

This approach seeks to set up a particular supportive environment in which all the members of the family can receive the child following delivery, hold and name the newborn, and fully acknowledge his or her brief but meaningful life.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 30, 2019Abortion, Death and Dying, Prenatal Testing, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Disabilities and the Disabled, End-of-Life Issues, Pregnancy Complications

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 159: Opioids, Pain Management, and Addiction - Balancing Ethical

Figuring out how to use these powerful pharmacological agents in an appropriate and ethical manner is urgent and imperative.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationSeptember 30, 2018Addiction and Substance Abuse, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Drug Abuse

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 151: To Be or Not to Be - Parsing the Implications of Suicide

While ending our life may seem to offer an ‘escape valve’ for the serious pressures and sufferings we face, we do well to consider the real effects of this choice both in this life, and in the life to come.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 30, 2018Death and Dying, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Suffering, End-of-Life Issues, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 119: What is VSED and Why Should It Matter to Us?

Choosing not to eat or drink can be packaged as a noble and well-intentioned way to avoid intense pain and suffering, but VSED ultimately represents a flawed choice. It subtly draws us into the mistake of treating the objective good of our life as if it were an evil to be quelled or extinguished.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 30, 2015Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Artificial Nutrition and Hydration, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 113: Physician-Assisted Suicide and Confronting Our Fears

Yet in the face of a terminal medical diagnosis, it is not reasonable to let our fears dictate our choices; instead it behooves us to confront and resolve those fears without yielding to panic and without allowing unpleasant future scenarios to loom large in our imagination.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2014Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

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 065: Facing Terminal Illnesses Realistically

…approaching our own mortality with a greater dose of realism helps us make better decisions about when to roll back the medical interventions and focus our energies on preparing for death.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2010Death and Dying, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Proportionate and Disproportionate Means, Suffering, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 053: Euthanasia – Broken Memories, Broken Bonds

…euthanasia and assisted suicide are little more than ways of short-circuiting our human interrelatedness & interconnectedness, acts of violence on a basic level that cause great harm and disruption.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2009Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Suffering, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 050: The Authentic Transformation of “Useless” Human Suffering

God permits our sufferings, offered up, to make an indelible mark in His work of Salvation. This transformation of the ‘uselessness’ of our suffering into something profoundly meaningful serves as a source of spiritual joy to those who enter into it.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2009Suffering, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

“Making Sense of Bioethics” CMS