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 170: Contradictory Suicide Messaging

The moral outrage and public reaction to Michelle’s behavior reveals a striking irony at the heart of Conrad’s suicide, namely, that similar indignation about encouraging someone to commit suicide is almost entirely absent when it comes to “physician-assisted” suicide.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2019Law and Ethics, Suffering, Universal Morality, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 157: Promethean Medical Temptations

Today, as modern medicine tries to rebuff death and control our humanity in ever more sophisticated ways, new temptations arise...

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJuly 30, 2018Abortion, End-of-Life Issues, In Vitro Fertilization, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, Research, Gender Identity and Being Transgender

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 149: Destroying My Freedom — in the Name of Freedom?

We can legitimately choose between apples and oranges, but not between milk and drain cleaner. If, in the name of autonomy, we were to ingest drain cleaner on purpose to make ourselves ill, we would actually undermine and surrender our personal autonomy.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2017Death and Dying, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

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 126: A Higher Standard Than for Cats and Dogs

For all our similarities to the rest of the animal kingdom, we are aware of a fundamental difference in kind between ourselves and our furry friends. We are not meant to die just as animals do, or be euthanized as they are.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationDecember 30, 2015Animal- Human Similarities and Divergences, Suffering, 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 058: Towards “Passive Euthanasia”

Recognizing that dehydration is a painful way to die serves as a helpful starting point to assist family members in addressing the nutrition and hydration needs of their loved ones who may find themselves in compromised states or approaching the end of life.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 30, 2010Persistent Vegetative State (PVS), Proportionate and Disproportionate Means, Suffering, Death and Dying, Dementia, Artificial Nutrition and Hydration, End-of-Life Issues, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

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

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: Column 027: True Compassion in the Midst of Tragedy

The truly compassionate doctor will humbly recognize that even his most powerful tools and treatments will not be able to stave off death in every case. At certain times, he will have to step aside as the shadow of death draws near and the mortal existence of the person he has been caring for comes to its natural close.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationSeptember 30, 2007Animal- Human Similarities and Divergences, Medical Profession — Ethics and Pastoral-Spiritual, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

“Making Sense of Bioethics” CMS