Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #225 : "De-Extincting" Long-Vanished Animal Species?

Even if de-extinction efforts do not seem to cross fundamental ethical lines, it behooves us to try to be clear, open, and ecologically-rigorous about the purposes, motivations and goals that undergird these endeavors.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 27, 2025Cloning, Genetics and Genome Editing, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #215 : The Ethics of Neuroimplants and Brain-Computer Interfaces

Brain-Computer Interfaces could offer important medical and therapeutic uses in the future, they also are poised for dubious or clearly immoral uses.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 24, 2023Bodily Enhancement-Mutilation, Disabilities and the Disabled, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 212: What About Synthetic Embryos?

A great deal is at stake in these kinds of synthetic embryo experiments that threaten to manipulate and destroy human life.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 31, 2023Embryos, Stem Cell Research, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 181: Tragedies in Human Medical Experimentation

Many questioned how such ethically offensive research could have continued unabated for so many decades.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJuly 30, 2020Eugenics, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 178: Accelerating Vaccine Development

Vaccines are real “game changers” in public health. As a society, we must continue to insist that vaccine development and production be held to the highest ethical standards.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 30, 2020COVID-19, Vaccines and Vaccination, Research Ethics, Fetal Tissue Harvesting, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 174: The Foxes and the Henhouse

There are few, if any, ‘bottom lines’ when it comes to research ethics. The lines have become exceedingly flexible, if the price is right or if a particular political administration wants to redraw them.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationDecember 30, 2019Genetics and Genome Editing, Imposing Our Beliefs, Law and Ethics, Science and Religion, Universal Morality, Cooperation in Evil, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 162: Gene-Edited Babies and the Runaway Train of IVF

Should JK's human gene editing work be condemned and should he be branded as a rogue scientist violating significant moral boundaries? The answer will, in fact, be linked to whether we understand IVF to be ethical or not…

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationDecember 30, 2018Genetics and Genome Editing, In Vitro Fertilization, Research

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...

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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 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…

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

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.

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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 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.

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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 131: Embryos & the 14-Day Rule

That every one of us was once an embryo remains an indisputable scientific dogma, causing a "fingernails on the chalkboard" phenomenon for researchers every time they choose to experiment on embryos...

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 30, 2016Embryos, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 122: Consenting to the Unconscionable

…the use of tissues and organs from direct abortions raises significant moral concerns, even if the mother’s signature may have been sought and obtained.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2015Fetal Tissue Harvesting, Informed Consent, Respect for the Remains of the Dead, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 109: Renegade Researchers and the Future of Biomedical Research

Respect for our own progeny, then, will have the obvious consequence that human embryos should not be generated in the laboratory for premeditated destruction, nor for cellular cannibalization by scientists.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJuly 30, 2014Embryos, Stem Cell Research, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 107: Editing Our Own Genes?

The remarkable tools becoming available not only for genetic therapies but also for human enhancement projects and embryonic manipulation raise daunting ethical concerns about the subjugation of man to his own technology....

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 30, 2014Genetics and Genome Editing, Eugenics, Research Ethics, Research

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 007: Good Ends, Evil Means & Fraudulent Science

Given the enormous pot of glory perceived by scientists at the end of that rainbow, researchers in their frantic rush hardly paused to catch their breath and consider the deeper questions raised by this technology.

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Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 30, 2006Stem Cell Research, Cloning, Embryos, Research Ethics, Research

“Making Sense of Bioethics” CMS