Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 158: Can We Pay Others to Donate a Kidney

At the end of the day, we want people to become organ donors, not organ vendors.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2018Law and Ethics, Organ Donation

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 156: The Smoke over Medical Marijuana

…medical marijuana seems to be receiving “special status” and is being “fast-tracked” for legalization, when it should instead be subject to the standard scientific verifications of the FDA approval process to assure its efficacy and safety.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJune 30, 2018Addiction and Substance Abuse, Law and Ethics, Universal Morality, Voting and Ethics, Alternative Medicine, Drug Abuse

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 155: Consenting to Sex

When it comes to ‘sex in the moment,’ consent is touted as key...

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 30, 2018Human Sexuality, Premarital Sex, Sex Education

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 154: Cowboys, Infertility and Deeper Moral Questions

…we realize how the procreation of our own children is meant to involve a strict exclusivity between husband and wife.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 30, 2018Artificial Insemination, Embryos, In Vitro Fertilization, Infertility, Parenting, Banking of Sperm and Eggs

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 153: The Wrong-Headedness of “Wrongful Birth” Lawsuits

At its core, the idea of a ‘wrongful birth’ claim is unreasonable and ethically incoherent.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMarch 30, 2018Law and Ethics, Abortion, Parenting, Disabilities and the Disabled, Pregnancy Complications

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 152: Sorting through "Solutions" to the HIV-AIDS Pandemic

STDs constitute a serious danger in an age where sexual behaviors are becoming ever more indiscriminate. STD outbreaks and pandemics often have their origins in unchaste behaviors and morally disordered forms of sexuality.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationFebruary 28, 2018Homosexuality and Gay Marriage, Human Sexuality, Premarital Sex, AIDS and HIV

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 150: The "Bitter Pill" of False Liberation

The Church’s ageless but countercultural teaching on contraception respects and uplifts women. It supports them in an authentic feminism that esteems their fruitfulness in marriage not as a defect, but as a real gift.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationDecember 30, 2017Human Sexuality, Sex Education, Birth Control and Contraception, Premarital Sex

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 148: When Is It a Sin to Make a Referral?

Among medical professionals, situations can arise in which they may be tempted to make a referral for an immoral procedure, supposing that because they are not doing the procedure themselves, they are now morally ‘in the clear.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 30, 2017Cooperation in Evil, Law and Ethics, Conscience and Civil Liberties

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 147: Sex in Accord with Reason

The manner in which the [sexual] act takes place and the details surrounding it are essential to determining whether the act occurs in an authentically human way...

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationSeptember 30, 2017Homosexuality and Gay Marriage, Human Sexuality, Parenting, Sex Education, Masturbation, Gender Identity and Being Transgender

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 146: The Expendable Children

This attitude of seeing our offspring as expendable is becoming more widely accepted not only among IVF customers, but also among biomedical researchers…

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2017Abortion, Embryos, In Vitro Fertilization, Genetics and Genome Editing, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 145: Considering the Options for Infertile Couples

It can be helpful to keep in mind a particular “rule of thumb” for determining whether a procedure is morally acceptable: treatments that assist the marital act are permissible, while those that replace, or substitute for, the marital act raise serious moral objections.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJuly 30, 2017Infertility, In Vitro Fertilization, Artificial Insemination, Intrauterine Insemination, Marriage, Natural Family Planning (NFP), Pregnancy Complications

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 144: Can I Donate My Body to Science?

Although there are not any fundamental moral objections to donating our bodies to science, certain details of how the donation is carried out are important.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJune 30, 2017Banking of Sperm and Eggs, Death and Dying, Respect for the Remains of the Dead, Research Ethics, End-of-Life Issues, Organ Donation, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 143: Doping Athletes

It seems fair to conclude that doping constitutes a form of cheating not only of one’s competitors, but also one's fans, oneself, and the integrity of the sporting activity itself.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 30, 2017Addiction and Substance Abuse, Bodily Enhancement-Mutilation, Law and Ethics, Drug Abuse

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 142: The Ethics of New Age Medicine

Sometimes a remedy can be borrowed from Chinese, Indian or another medical tradition, but it should be chosen for its efficacy, safety, and reasonable mode of action, and not be in conflict with principles of sound medical science or Christian teaching.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 30, 2017Alternative Medicine

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 141: I'm Not "Intrinsically Disordered!"

Intrinsically disordered acts, while always destructive to ourselves and to others, do not put us outside of the eventual reach of grace and mercy...

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMarch 30, 2017Homosexuality and Gay Marriage, Human Sexuality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 140: How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions?

Many people appreciate that the Catholic Church holds firm and well-defined positions on moral questions, even if they may remain unsure about how or why the Church actually arrives at those positions, especially when it comes to unpacking new scientific developments like embryonic stem cell research.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationFebruary 28, 2017Artificial Insemination, Cloning, Embryos, Infertility, In Vitro Fertilization, Science and Religion, Stem Cell Research, Universal Morality, Conscience, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 139: Thinking Through the Temptation of Cohabitation

Sex, of course, has a certain power all its own, and both sides may be tempted to play with it in ways that are potentially damaging, all the more so when they decide to cohabit.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 30, 2017Human Sexuality, Premarital Sex, Parenting

“Making Sense of Bioethics” CMS