The Moral Mind

St. John Henry Newman will soon be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV. This prominent 19th century English convert to Catholicism made significant contributions to the understanding of conscience within Catholic moral theology and ultimately to modern bioethics

Human Embryo Adoption, vol. 2: Catholic Arguments For and Against makes a vital contribution to the intense discussion concerning what could be ethical solutions to the tragedy of millions of human embryos imprisoned in a frozen state because of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Human Embryo Adoption, vol. 2: Catholic Arguments For and Against makes a vital contribution to the intense discussion concerning what could be ethical solutions to the tragedy of millions of human embryos imprisoned in a frozen state because of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

There are many shocking aspects to the euphemistically termed Medical Assistance in Dying or MAiD euthanasia law in Canada. One is how government forces are coercing Catholic health care in Canada to collaborate with the evil of killing sick and vulnerable people.

Most people who have heard of Fertility-Awareness-Based Methods (FABMs) think of them as an ethical way to space pregnancies rather than as a precious tool for overcoming infertility.

Governor Greg Abbott recently signed into law a resolution to place a six-foot bronze statue of a mother with a preborn child on a two-foot base near the Texas Capitol building in Austin.

Pope Leo XIV in the short time since his election has already expressed himself forcefully on several bioethical topics. Unsurprisingly, he emphasizes the human dignity of every person with special attention to the most vulnerable, notably the unborn, elderly, and sick. He has also brought up the challenge of artificial intelligence several times. Prior to his election as pope he spoke clearly on the ethical problems associated with gender ideology and the “homosexual lifestyle.”

Of very deep concern to my wife and I, along with the nearly one in seven couples who struggle with infertility, is the woeful lack of knowledge about restorative reproductive medicine (RRM) among medical professionals and others who almost always promote in vitro fertilization (IVF) instead. The good news is that something practical and positive is being done about it. This Spring, the state of Arkansas became the first to pass into law the “Reproductive Empowerment and Support Through Optimal Restoration RESTORE Act.”

Something often misunderstood by secular thinkers is that faithful Catholics and others with rightly formed consciences can never engage in formal cooperation with the evil actions of another person. Recently, a court in Illinois ruled that “if patients request abortions, at a minimum, the State can require medical professionals to provide information of other medical professionals whom they reasonably believe might perform abortions.”

The new pastoral framework from the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, “Life Is Always a Good” was released on the 30th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s remarkable encyclical Evangelium Vitae.De-extinction, using genetic technology to bring back to life an extinct species, is now a possibility, and the bioethical questions surrounding this practice are therefore more urgent. Colossal Biosciences made headlines with its “resurrection” of the dire wolf recently after an estimated 10,000 years of extinction.

The new pastoral framework from the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, “Life Is Always a Good” was released on the 30th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s remarkable encyclical Evangelium Vitae.

There is perhaps no bioethical topic more hotly debated among Catholics than the morality of adopting frozen embryos. This issue arose after the unequivocal condemnation of the practice of in vitro fertilization (IVF) by the Instruction Donum Vitae issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1987.