...significant technical and ethical hurdles remain before growing organs in pigs is likely to be feasible. The science is still in its infancy, and researchers have yet to figure out how to make human cells co-exist in a stable fashion with animal tissues.
Read MoreThey may feel they are defined entirely by their addiction, unlovable and wretched, rather than seeing that they are, in fact, human beings who are precious to God and those around them, and even now endowed with some tiny space of remaining freedom.
Read MoreFor 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.
Read MoreParents are in the unique position of being able to model for their children a healthy example of sexual integration, generosity, and self-mastery within marriage.
Read MoreThe beauty and meaning of every sexual encounter in marriage, then, is rooted not only in faithful and exclusive love, but also in the radical complementarity of spouses manifested in the abiding mystery of their mutual procreativity.
Read MoreEven so, various commentators have tried to insist that Ms. Davis was elected to serve as a government official, and should carry out the provisions of the law even if she might not agree with them. But this argument is flawed on at least four counts.
Read More…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.
Read MoreThis kind of confused language about allowing people to “define their identity” ignores the crucially important truth that numerous aspects of our identity, especially those related to our bodily and sexual identity, are pre-determined, objective goods...
Read More… if the egg harvesting step could be carried out with low risk to women, if the egg freezing process would not cause any deleterious effects on children who might later come into being, and if the eggs were only used for morally legitimate purposes like LTOT, freezing a woman’s eggs would appear to be morally allowable.
Read MoreChoosing not to eat or drink can be packaged as a noble and well-intentioned way to avoid intense pain and suffering, but VSED ultimately represents a flawed choice. It subtly draws us into the mistake of treating the objective good of our life as if it were an evil to be quelled or extinguished.
Read MoreIt should be obvious how any approach that weakens or casts into question the integral connection between parents and their offspring will raise grave ethical concerns.
Read More… women were able to carry their pregnancies to term after receiving an intramuscular injection of progesterone. Since 2012, dozens of other women have successfully reversed their chemical abortions.
Read MoreSome patients may have tried diligently for years to lose weight, while others may have made only cursory, poorly-supported efforts. The need for support is also likely to continue following bariatric surgery or after the implantation of a stomach pacemaker.
Read MoreCompassionately attending to the needs of the elderly draws generations together and builds solidarity.
Read More…the specific circumstances of both the donor and recipient are crucial in discerning the ethical appropriate-ness of this unusual procedure.
Read MoreYet in the face of a terminal medical diagnosis, it is not reasonable to let our fears dictate our choices; instead it behooves us to confront and resolve those fears without yielding to panic and without allowing unpleasant future scenarios to loom large in our imagination.
Read MoreMarriage, in fact, is the “primordial first institution,” flowing out of the intimate and creative union of male and female. It… is essentially ordered towards creating and caring for the future in the form of the next generation.
Read MoreAs a set of standing medical orders, the POLST approach is inflexible. Straightforwardly following orders created outside of a particular situation may be ill-advised, improper and even harmful to the patient.
Read MoreThe pregnancy itself would be brought about by a new and different set of causes, whereby the mechanical actions of a technician would substitute for, and thus violate, the intimate and exclusive bond of the marital act.
Read MoreRespect 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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