Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 210 : Suicidal Fears and Authentic Accompaniment

We need to care for them in a more truthful way — accompanying, supporting, and helping them to address underlying issues — so they can begin to find real healing.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMarch 31, 2023Gender Identity and Being Transgender, Parenting, Suffering

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 205 : Seeking the Spiritual Side of Dementia

As the symptoms and complications of dementia unfold, the challenges we face from the disease can unexpectedly become an invitation from God.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 28, 2022Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Dementia, Suffering

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 199: Too Much Morphine?

Careful attention to pain management is of paramount importance in end-of-life care and supports both the patient and the family in a dignified way during the dying process.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 31, 2022Death and Dying, End-of-Life Issues, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Proportionate and Disproportionate Means, Suffering

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 179: Spiritual Lessons from the Pandemic

While scientists may promise new treatments, and politicians may promise safety through contact tracing and lockdowns, these measures are stopgaps in the face of our larger human questions.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 30, 2020COVID-19, Suffering

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 176: A Hundred Love Letters

Each of our loving human gestures speaks volumes about the singular power of love to overcome fear, and to strengthen us in adversity.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationFebruary 28, 2020Death and Dying, Suffering, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 171: Palliative Sedation While Approaching Death

When we find ourselves nailed to our hospital bed, it can become an important personal moment for us to engage the possibility of a spiritual transformation opening before us.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationSeptember 30, 2019Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Proportionate and Disproportionate Means, Suffering, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 170: Contradictory Suicide Messaging

The moral outrage and public reaction to Michelle’s behavior reveals a striking irony at the heart of Conrad’s suicide, namely, that similar indignation about encouraging someone to commit suicide is almost entirely absent when it comes to “physician-assisted” suicide.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2019Law and Ethics, Suffering, Universal Morality, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

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 130: On Aging Gracefully

Our later years can powerfully provoke us to come to terms with our destiny and with higher truths.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 30, 2016Suffering, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 126: A Higher Standard Than for Cats and Dogs

For all our similarities to the rest of the animal kingdom, we are aware of a fundamental difference in kind between ourselves and our furry friends. We are not meant to die just as animals do, or be euthanized as they are.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationDecember 30, 2015Animal- Human Similarities and Divergences, Suffering, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 088: Talking Americans Down from the Assisted-Suicide Ledge

Suicide hotlines are open 24 hours a day because we seek to prevent as many deaths as we can. We treat as heroes those who walk along bridges or climb tall buildings and try to talk people down.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 30, 2012Suffering, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Physician-Assisted Suicide

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 083: Powerlessness, or the Hidden Power in Our Suffering?

By spiritually embracing in God that specific path to death, our freedom is elevated to new heights; indeed, we “achieve control” in the most important way possible, through willed surrender and radical gift in our innermost depths.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 30, 2012Suffering, Death and Dying, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 065: Facing Terminal Illnesses Realistically

…approaching our own mortality with a greater dose of realism helps us make better decisions about when to roll back the medical interventions and focus our energies on preparing for death.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2010Death and Dying, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Proportionate and Disproportionate Means, Suffering, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 064: Defending the Dignity of Those with Dementia

When our ability to think rationally or choose freely becomes clouded or even eliminated by dementia, we still remain at root the kind of creature who is rational and free, and the bearer of inalienable human dignity.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 30, 2010Death and Dying, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Suffering, Dementia, Disabilities and the Disabled, End-of-Life Issues

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 058: Towards “Passive Euthanasia”

Recognizing that dehydration is a painful way to die serves as a helpful starting point to assist family members in addressing the nutrition and hydration needs of their loved ones who may find themselves in compromised states or approaching the end of life.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 30, 2010Persistent Vegetative State (PVS), Proportionate and Disproportionate Means, Suffering, Death and Dying, Dementia, Artificial Nutrition and Hydration, End-of-Life Issues, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 057: Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope

Fostering a humanly enriching environment for those facing death often means giving explicit attention to human presence and human contact, even in the midst of a plethora of technology that may surround a patient.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMarch 30, 2010Suffering, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Artificial Nutrition and Hydration, Medical Profession — Ethics and Pastoral-Spiritual, End-of-Life Issues, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 053: Euthanasia – Broken Memories, Broken Bonds

…euthanasia and assisted suicide are little more than ways of short-circuiting our human interrelatedness & interconnectedness, acts of violence on a basic level that cause great harm and disruption.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2009Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Suffering, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 050: The Authentic Transformation of “Useless” Human Suffering

God permits our sufferings, offered up, to make an indelible mark in His work of Salvation. This transformation of the ‘uselessness’ of our suffering into something profoundly meaningful serves as a source of spiritual joy to those who enter into it.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2009Suffering, Pain Management-Palliative Care and Hospice, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

“Making Sense of Bioethics” CMS