Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 211 : Setting a Moral Vision as Parents

Setting a moral vision for one's children can be a Herculean task requiring enormous dedication.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 28, 2023Imposing Our Beliefs, Parenting, Universal Morality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 208 : Young Women Giving Themselves Away For Nothing

When young women immodestly display their feminine attributes and participate in pornography, they end up objectifying themselves, trivializing their sexuality, and harming their interpersonal relationships.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJanuary 31, 2023Human Sexuality, Premarital Sex, Sex Education, Pornography, Universal Morality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 202: A Great Nation Begins to Come to Its Senses

As new legal initiatives begin appearing on state legislative dockets, Americans will have an opportunity to mount a full court press to bring abortion to an end in their home states.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 29, 2022Abortion, Conscience, Natural Law, Universal Morality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 200: Dehumanizing One Another

Renewing hope for conflict-laden humanity begins precisely in the acknowledgement of each other’s humanity, strengthening those fraternal bonds on which peace is grounded.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationFebruary 28, 2022Universal Morality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 191 : Challenging the Establishment on Childhood Gender Transitions

Vulnerable young people, caught up in the pressure of the moment, have too easily been drawn into life-altering pathways involving medications and scalpels with their frequently irreversible effects.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationMay 28, 2021Bodily Enhancement-Mutilation, Medical Profession — Ethics and Pastoral-Spiritual, Parenting, Gender Identity and Being Transgender, Universal Morality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 180: Language — Veiling or Unveiling Moral Truth?

The careful hijacking of language by purveyors of wrongdoing is a widely-deployed tactic in the battle for the soul of every culture.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJune 30, 2020Human Sexuality, Imposing Our Beliefs, Natural Law, Universal Morality, Conscience, Bodily Enhancement-Mutilation, Medical Profession — Ethics and Pastoral-Spiritual

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.

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 173: Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred

We need to attend carefully to the graced realities we regularly handle lest we end up squandering or losing our sense of the sacred.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2019Abortion, Caring for the Elderly and Infirm, Death and Dying, Disabilities and the Disabled, Imposing Our Beliefs, Universal Morality, Sacraments, Medical Profession — Ethics and Pastoral-Spiritual, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 172: Pushing Back Against Evil

We need to recognize how God has entrusted to each of us a small garden that he asks us to tend.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationOctober 30, 2019Universal Morality, Cooperation in Evil, Conscience, Imposing Our Beliefs

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 164: “Exceptions” and the Undermining of the Moral Law

Encouraging exceptions is the entry point into a broader repudiation of our moral duties towards each other, the first of which is the duty to respect the inviolability of each other’s life.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationFebruary 28, 2019Abortion, Law and Ethics, Universal Morality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 161: Abortion Funding — Cutting off the Blood Supply

Approximately half a billion dollars of taxpayer money is received annually by Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of ‘pregnancy terminations’ in the United States.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationNovember 30, 2018Abortion, Imposing Our Beliefs, Law and Ethics, Universal Morality, Voting and Ethics

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 156: The Smoke over Medical Marijuana

…medical marijuana seems to be receiving “special status” and is being “fast-tracked” for legalization, when it should instead be subject to the standard scientific verifications of the FDA approval process to assure its efficacy and safety.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJune 30, 2018Addiction and Substance Abuse, Law and Ethics, Universal Morality, Voting and Ethics, Alternative Medicine, Drug Abuse

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.

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 138: It's Not Wrong, If It Feels Right!

Most of us, in fact, have probably granted our emotions leeway to trump our better moral judgment somewhere along the line.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationDecember 30, 2016Natural Law, Universal Morality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 135: Leaving Our Values at the Door of the Strip Club

Good parents never drive their children to strip clubs, and neither should any institution entrusted with a protective parental role; on the contrary, such institutions should erect appropriate boundaries and limits on harmful behaviors, so their residents can grow and flourish...

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationSeptember 30, 2016Pornography, Universal Morality, Disabilities and the Disabled

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 134: Talking to Kids About Porn & Human Sexuality

...the home setting needs to differ from the outside world, serving as an oasis and a protected environment for children.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2016Pornography, Parenting, Sex Education, Universal Morality, Human Sexuality

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 108: Clearing the Air Around Marijuana Use

Part of the unethical character of drug abuse flows from the fact that we are treating something good, namely our personal, conscious experience as if it were an evil to be avoided.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationJune 30, 2014Addiction and Substance Abuse, Law and Ethics, Universal Morality, Voting and Ethics, Drug Abuse

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 098: Universal Morality and the Natural Law

When functioning properly, this moral compass (a.k.a. our “conscience”), not only encourages us from within to “do good and avoid evil,” but also sets off internal alarm bells when we are tempted to carry out evil acts.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationAugust 30, 2013Universal Morality, Natural Law, Conscience

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column 082: Black & White or Gray?

…when we sort out the relevant details and seek to purify our own motives, and when we become willing to submit to the binding character of absolute moral prohibitions, the gray haze can dissipate, and we can see the real moral lines that were there all along.

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of EducationApril 30, 2012Natural Law, Universal Morality

“Making Sense of Bioethics” CMS