“Medicine is a moral enterprise.” This quotation from the late professor Edmund Pellegrino, one of the pioneers of Catholic bioethics, encapsulates a key insight. All are called to lead a moral life and to achieve the holiness of the saints. This obviously means that ethics is important in all professions and walks of life. Yet, we rightly hold physicians and other health care workers to higher standards of professional ethics. It is profitable to reflect in a deeper way on this moral intuition.

The Manipulation of EMTALA

How sad when beneficial measures are twisted by those with a manipulative political agenda. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Reagan in 1986. Its purpose was to ensure that Americans had access to emergency medical services even if they lacked financial means or health insurance. This is very much in conformity with the Catholic view that basic health care is a human right, especially in emergency situations. Now the Biden administration is using EMTALA to force an abortion mandate onto physicians.

The Totalitarian Fiasco of the HHS 1557 Rule

It is hard to know where to begin in a critical response to the over 300-page proposed revised regulations recently published by the Federal Department Health and Human Services (HHS) on Nondiscrimination in Health Programs and Activities. The proposed federal rule would “force health care workers to perform gender transition procedures, require health insurance issuers to cover them, and entertain a mandate to perform elective abortions,” in the words of a statement by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Silent Plague of Vasectomies

There is a silent moral plague: the seldom preached about grave violation of sexual ethics represented by male sterilization through a vasectomy. In this procedure the two vas deferens tubes are severed or blocked so that sperm cannot exit the testicles, rendering the man sterile. Catholic moral teaching is quite clear that contraception is a mortal sin and sterilization is an even more serious sin since it involves the mutilation of healthy organs in both male vasectomies and female fallopian tube ligations. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2399 and 2297)

Will the Cure Be Worse Than the Disease?

The global response to COVID-19 is a unique moment of unity and solidarity when humanity has mobilized to save lives. However, as scientists race to develop a cure, we cannot silently assent to the development of vaccines and treatments using cell lines derived from aborted fetuses.The problem of tolerating or even promoting evil in science and medicine will only be resolved through strong engagement to demand moral options both by individuals and institutions.

What Bad Science and Medicine Can Do to Our Souls

The pandemic is not a good excuse to put aside our ethical and moral principles. We must rather uphold them more strongly, as they will help us to come through these trying times well. If we allow scientific research to be done in an unethical way, or permit patients to be unjustly discriminated against in triage protocols and so on, we shall emerge from this crisis ashamed of what we allowed the response to the pandemic to do to our values.

The Moral Mind