Fifty Years of The National Catholic Bioethics Center

Fifty years is a venerable age for a bioethics center, especially since the academic discipline only came into being in the 1970s. The original name of the NCBC when we were founded in 1972 was the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research and Education Center. It was the year before Roe v. Wade unleashed abortion-on-demand across the USA. We are fervently praying that 2022 will be the year that the US Supreme Court reverses itself and allows states to ban abortion again. Yet, even if the enormous ethical issue of abortion moves towards resolution, there are vast and growing areas where bioethical reasoning and guidance are needed in health care and biomedical research. The COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, has led to the busiest time in our Center’s history.

We Should Be Concerned about Chimeras

Chimeras are hybrid creatures that result when the DNA from two or more individuals or species are mixed. The word chimera comes from ancient Greek mythology. The Chimera was a monster with the body of a lion, the head of a goat protruding from its back, and a tail ending with the head of a snake.

COVID-19 Vaccines

It is my fervent prayer that no successful COVID-19 vaccine will emerge that was developed with the use of ethically tainted cell lines.

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