Posts tagged Catholic Health Care
Lesser Evil in Voting

On his flight back from his recent pastoral visit to Asia, Pope Francis had an informal in-flight press conference.  An American journalist, Anna Matranga, from CBS News, tried to draw a moral equivalence between supporting abortion and deporting immigrants with the following question: “With the US elections coming up, what advice would you give a Catholic voter who must decide between one candidate who is in favor of the interruption of pregnancy and another who wants to deport 11 million migrants?”

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Medical Research and the Assessment of Risk

The Federal Government’s General Services Administration (GSA) has issued a new final rule, “Federal Management Regulation; Updating the FMR with Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Language,” that will become effective October 21, 2024. It is one more example of the Biden-Harris Administration’s strong push to promote transgenderism.

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The Priority of Ethics over Technology

One of the greatest bioethical challenges in the modern world is the lack of a clear consensus about the need for scientific research to be oriented by robust ethical guidelines and safeguards. It is astonishing to me that there is so little outcry over biomedical research using and killing human beings at their earliest stage of development For example, the International Society for Stem Cell Research in 2021 notably dropped its rule that no human embryos could be experimented upon and allowed to grow in labs past 14 days. In fact, new human genetic manipulation research, “clone and kill” research, and other experimentation on human embryos are set to explode in the coming decades, if good bioethicists and legislators do not intervene quickly and successfully.

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A False Charge against Catholic Health Care

The Catholic vision of health care is one of respecting the dignity of the person and addressing all the needs of patients; physical, psychological, and spiritual. The health care ministries of the Church strive to heal the sick but also to lovingly care both medically and spiritually for those terminally or chronically ill who cannot be cured. When the very sad circumstances arise of a mother experiencing a high-risk pregnancy, the priority must be to find ways to effectively help both mom and baby.

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“Let’s Avoid the Term ‘Vegetative State’”

The term Persistent Vegetative State (PVS) is commonly used to describe patients who are brain-injured and in a wakeful but unconscious state. Ethically, it is highly problematic and even pejorative to refer to living human beings in a way that makes them seem like “vegetables.” Quite a few scientific experts recommend using different terminology,

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The Purpose of a Catholic Bioethics Center

The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) exists to provide education, guidance, and resources to the Church and society to uphold the dignity of the human person in health care and biomedical research, thereby sharing in the ministry of Jesus Christ and his Church. Bioethics is an area where the lay faithful have great need of support in the formation of their consciences and discernment in making moral decisions.

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The Abuse of Toleration

Toleration is not a Christian virtue, but it is a positive good that merits the support of civil society. Strong advocacy for toleration began during the Protestant Reformation when the doctrinal disputes among Christian denominations led to vicious persecutions and religious warfare. Figures like John Locke recommended that Christians live in peace with each other despite differences over doctrine. The toleration of error was preferable to dissension and hatred. The defenders of toleration also believed that each person should be free to affirm only what he truly believes. No one should be compelled to assent to what he thinks is false. But toleration is not relativism. To tolerate is not to agree with what one believes to be in error. Neither does it require a blanket denial of objective truth. A tolerant person judges that others hold erroneous views but chooses to live with them peaceably. The tolerant hope for agreement in the future.

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The Meaning of Respect in Bioethics

Respect is a term employed frequently in society and in bioethics. Unfortunately, the word respect is used equivocally today. It should mean treating others with consideration and the recognition that some realities and values must always be upheld. That is what respecting human rights means. Many today think that respect requires accepting the vision of reality adopted by others and treating them as they want even if others are forced to contradict what they believe to be true.

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Why You Cannot Destroy Human Embryos

Human embryos are living beings and yet some scientists, politicians, ethicists, and even theologians have fallen into the rhetorical trap of speaking about their “destruction” rather than their being killed. Logic and correct use of language tell us one does not kill a car, one destroys inanimate objects. One kills rather than destroys an oak tree, an animal, or any living being. Only after living creatures have died or been killed can their inanimate bodies be destroyed.

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Gestational Surrogacy as Exploitation

The negative ethical judgment on gestational surrogacy is clear. It is a grave violation of both the dignity of the woman and the child to intentionally conceive and carry a baby in view of surrendering him or her after birth to others. Sometimes the surrogate mother is simply renting her womb and body for the pregnancy of a child conceived using the gametes of a man and another woman. At other times she is the biological mother of the baby with the sperm of one of the contracting parties used to father the child.

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