When I was a young graduate (1962), abortion was still illegal, and unborn children were secure in their mothers’ wombs. The sale and distribution of contraceptives was illegal in Pennsylvania where I grew up. Physicians still devoted themselves to healing their patients rather than helping them kill themselves. There was no gay agenda, no transgender movement. There was no LGBTQ+ lobby. Families were still generally intact. But so much of that has changed in the span of a single lifetime – mine.

The FDA and Mifepristone Abortions

Direct abortion is never ethically acceptable from a Catholic perspective. The grave intrinsic evil can be made even worse, however, under some circumstances. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found ways to do so with its approval of and subsequent loosening of restrictions on mifepristone or so-called medication abortions. The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) recently joined an amicus curiae or “friend of the court” brief in support of a reversal of the FDA’s approval of mifepristone as a drug for causing abortions.

The Credibility Crisis at the FDA

An unfortunate result of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a crisis of credibility of many government, scientific, and health care institutions. There is neither time nor space to explore the issue here. I will focus instead on how the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is adding fuel to this crisis. The FDA recently changed its Drug Facts Label for Plan B One Step (PBOS), known to the public as Plan B “emergency contraception,” in ways that create suspicion that this process was not so much guided by objective scientific facts as it was by political pressure and other extraneous factors.

Ethics and the Police Power of the State

Governments should exist to provide security and ensure justice for their citizens. These services necessitate high ethical standards because the lives and freedoms of the people are at stake. A basic assumption in democratic societies is that the police should serve and protect the people and the rule of law. We rightfully become upset when there are abuses of police power or similar injustices.

The Ethics of Protesting

There are ethical rules for protesting, just as there are for everything else that one does. Resorting to violence and vandalism are two of the most unethical actions associated with modern protests. I have participated in many marches, life chains, and other public denunciations of abortion over the years. Peaceful protesting is a valid and even meritorious way to make one’s concerns and beliefs known to the wider public in a free society. In fact, we have an ethical duty to not simply allow injustices to continue.

Conscientious Objection and Abortion

A shocking news headline grabbed my attention recently: “Conscientious objection ‘may become indefensible’ according to new WHO guidance.” Rights of conscience, like all other fundamental human rights, do have limits and certain conditions that must apply for their exercise, but what could possibly justify the World Health Organization (WHO) rhetorically condemning conscientious objection?

Prenatal Diagnosis and Counseling

Prenatal Diagnosis and the counseling that goes with it are fraught with ethical challenges. It is one of the areas of medicine where the Catholic and pro-life perspectives sharply contrast with the approach of many secular institutions and health workers. A lack of good ethical practice in this area is evidenced by the extraordinarily high rates of abortion when preborn children test positive for Trisomy 21 or Down Syndrome.

President MessagesJoseph Meaney, PhD—NCBC PresidentMay 19, 2022Abortion

Ethical Blindness and the “Women’s Health Protection Act”

I should not be surprised or shocked, but I still shook my head in disbelief when the radical abortion “Women’s Health Protection Act” (H.R. 3755) failed to advence in the US Senate by only two votes this week. I do not by any means want to imply that selective ethical blindness is a uniquely liberal phenomenon. It is widespread, and I recognize a version of it in myself when I am tempted to rationalize a bad action of mine that I would never defend when I see others doing the same. Fallen human nature, a consequence of Original Sin, is in evidence all around us, and perhaps most distressingly, in our own hearts.

Fifty Years of The National Catholic Bioethics Center

Fifty years is a venerable age for a bioethics center, especially since the academic discipline only came into being in the 1970s. The original name of the NCBC when we were founded in 1972 was the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research and Education Center. It was the year before Roe v. Wade unleashed abortion-on-demand across the USA. We are fervently praying that 2022 will be the year that the US Supreme Court reverses itself and allows states to ban abortion again. Yet, even if the enormous ethical issue of abortion moves towards resolution, there are vast and growing areas where bioethical reasoning and guidance are needed in health care and biomedical research. The COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, has led to the busiest time in our Center’s history.

Joy and Celebration at the United States Supreme Court

I joined several thousand pro-life citizens and a small and largely dejected group of abortion supporters who rallied outside the United States Supreme Court as the petitioner’s oral arguments were made to the nine Justices: the Roe v. Wade ruling should be cast onto the great scrap heap of wrongly decided cases.

No Taxpayer Funds for Abortion!

Abortion is unique among ethical violations. It is a particularly grave offense because of the complete innocence of the victim and the usual consent and active participation of those who have a sacred duty to protect the life of the child. Doctors and nurses are called to a higher ethical standard than most professionals. Committing abortions is a perversion of medicine and the polar opposite of their mission to heal and preserve human life.

Making a Mockery of Scientific Research Ethics

Anyone who understands the scientific fact that human life begins at the moment of conception, and who agrees that human beings have rights, cannot accept as ethical the process of creating human embryos in laboratories with the full knowledge they will die or be killed at either 14 or 28 days.

COVID-19 Vaccines

It is my fervent prayer that no successful COVID-19 vaccine will emerge that was developed with the use of ethically tainted cell lines.

Will the Cure Be Worse Than the Disease?

The global response to COVID-19 is a unique moment of unity and solidarity when humanity has mobilized to save lives. However, as scientists race to develop a cure, we cannot silently assent to the development of vaccines and treatments using cell lines derived from aborted fetuses.The problem of tolerating or even promoting evil in science and medicine will only be resolved through strong engagement to demand moral options both by individuals and institutions.

What Bad Science and Medicine Can Do to Our Souls

The pandemic is not a good excuse to put aside our ethical and moral principles. We must rather uphold them more strongly, as they will help us to come through these trying times well. If we allow scientific research to be done in an unethical way, or permit patients to be unjustly discriminated against in triage protocols and so on, we shall emerge from this crisis ashamed of what we allowed the response to the pandemic to do to our values.

The Culture of Life Will Triumph over COVID-19 with More Babies

We are experiencing the kind of massive cultural and social shock that makes people ask themselves the deeper questions that are easily put off or ignored in day-to-day living. Many people will give pro-life and procreative answers to those questions. Seeking out positive tidings is important when so much news is negative and fear-inducing.

Messages from Our President and President Emeritus