The Child: A Preeminent Good

The child holds the center of our attention this time of year. There are the beautiful portrayals of the holy Virgin, cradling her infant son in her arms after His birth. Eight days later, according to Jewish tradition, the baby boy is circumcised, the first shedding of His blood for our redemption. Forty days after his birth Jesus is presented in the Temple at the same time His Mother undergoes the ritual of purification. These are intimate moments with our attention and our love focused on the holy Child.

The Cause of the Present Disorder

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 NCBC and Catholic Parishes

The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) strives to draw on the light and life of Jesus Christ and the Catholic moral tradition to address ethical challenges facing the faithful. One of our most exciting major initiatives is our parish membership program. This is a concrete way for the NCBC to reach Catholics in the pews who need our expert assistance.

The Importance of Ethics Committees

Ethics committees exist in hospitals and other institutions because expertise is needed in certain trying situations to help professionals and individuals find the right answers when difficult ethical questions arise. The problem of ethical dilemmas is growing tremendously in biomedicine and research as scientific discoveries continue to push ethical boundaries constantly.

The Ethics of a DNR

Many people struggle with the ethical discernment surrounding the decision to have a Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR) put into place for themselves or a loved one. The DNR is a specific medical order. “It instructs health care providers not to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if a patient's breathing stops or if the patient's heart stops beating.” There are circumstances where faithful Catholic bioethicists agree that a DNR can be moral and others where it is not.

Civilization and Bioethics

Authentic civilization is rooted in morality and objective values. In fact, the bioethics of societies tells us if they are civilized or not. Scientific knowledge and development can be at the service of humanity or of barbarism, depending on the ethics that guides their application.

The Ethics of Fighting Human Trafficking

It is astonishing how ancient evils can “modernize” and emerge again. Slavery was legally abolished in the 19th century in most of the world, but diverse new forms of slavery, falling under the general heading of human trafficking, are a growing contemporary plague.

Detransitioning

Detransitioning is being discussed more frequently in the news. This is the process whereby persons who previously went through a “sex change” do their best to reverse that procedure. From a Catholic perspective (and also the common view of nearly all cultures and religions until very recently), a person is either male or female, and this biological fact is good and should be accepted. LGBTQ+ activists and their theorists have come up with the idea that one is only “assigned” a sex by our biology and that a person can therefore experience gender dysphoria, a sense of “being in the wrong body.” Their solution to this mental anguish is to dress and interact as a member of the gender they identify with and frequently take hormones, drugs, and surgery to “transition” their bodies so that they transform themselves into their self-perceived gender.

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.

The Verdict on COVID Vaccine Mandates and the Common Good

The New York Supreme Court declared the state COVID-19 vaccine mandate for medical staff “null and void,” striking it down. This is especially significant since this is not Florida but liberal New York. A big part of the reasoning behind the ruling was the now-acknowledged scientific fact that the various COVID vaccines do not stop transmission of the disease. This undercut the main basis for the mandate, that it was a major public health benefit.

The (Dis)Respect for Marriage Act

Marriage has a definition founded on the natural order. It is not an institution that can be redefined at the whim of judges or legislators or to appease social activist groups.

Eight Billion Blessings: The Ethics of Population and Demography

This week demographers announced that world population had reached 8 billion. I was pleased that most articles covering the milestone did not focus on the “population explosion myth” that led to massive and highly unethical population control measures starting in the 1960s.

World Medical Association Affirms Conscience Rights

I am always thrilled when it is possible to report victories in the field of bioethics, particularly when it concerns the conscience rights of health care professionals. The World Medical Association (WMA) at the end of October issued their newly revised International Code of Medical Ethics.

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.

Easter and Catholic Bioethics

Catholic bioethics is tied not just to the ethical teachings of Jesus Christ but to the transformative reality that human beings have a unique dignity and destiny to be raised from the dead and hopefully spend all eternity with God. St. Paul was very blunt about the overwhelming importance of the bodily resurrection of Jesus to all followers of Christ. “

Some Acts Are Intrinsically Evil

We live in a world that by and large unconsciously accepts the false view that there are no such things as intrinsically evil acts. Saint John Paul II, in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor, summarized the Catholic and natural law position well.

Ukraine and the Ethics of War

“War is Hell.” This quotation from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman is sometimes used to mistakenly imply that ethics does not apply to warfare. As harsh as Sherman was in deliberately and systematically destroying civilian property, crops, and livestock, even he drew a line at deliberately killing the noncombatants he made homeless.

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.

Bioethical Reflection, Prayer and Fellowship with our Bishops

We recently concluded our 28th NCBC/Knights of Columbus Workshop for Bishops which explored the very important topic of updating the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs).

Messages from Our President and President Emeritus