What a surprise to sit down on a commuter train and see an ad picturing a newborn baby held tightly by a woman with the tag line “overcoming infertility with a uterine transplant.” Bioethics is truly everywhere these days.
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Recently I have reflected on how a key aspect of the ethical framework proposed by the Catholic Church turned the world on its head. The moral judgment that the rich, powerful, and privileged should serve and care for the poor, weak, and underprivileged was a revolutionary concept.
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I recently had a rather shocking experience. Irresponsible reporting on Twitter and a blog accused me of lying to deceive Catholics. The reports linked to a brief part of an interview I had done on EWTN’s Pro-Life Weekly program almost a year ago. I said (correctly) that there was no link to abortion in the manufacture of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. (In fact, no cell lines at all are used to produce these new MRNA vaccines.) So far, so good.
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I am so pleased to have this opportunity to highlight the wonderful work of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization that focuses on charity and helping men and their families to grow in faith and service to the Church.
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There are disturbing reports of a small number of health workers, primarily physicians, refusing to see or treat unvaccinated persons.
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Each and every person’s moment of death is of the highest significance. The Church has always focused with the greatest zeal on bringing the sacraments and every kind of spiritual support possible to the dying. That was the background for the Ars Moriendi, or The Art of Dying book, composed in the late Middle Ages, probably by a Dominican friar.
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In late 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the first COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use in adults. In May 2021, the Pfizer vaccine became the first authorized for children as young as 12. The threshold may be lower by the start of the new school year this fall. How can parents begin to think through a vaccination decision for children?
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Each and every person’s moment of death is of the highest significance. The Church has always focused with the greatest zeal on bringing the sacraments and every kind of spiritual support possible to the dying. That was the background for the Ars Moriendi, or The Art of Dying book, composed in the late Middle Ages, probably by a Dominican friar.
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Journalists and others have increasingly employed the problematic phrases “vaccine hesitancy” or “vaccine hesitant” to describe those who have so far not accepted one of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines.
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The most remarkable feature of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is that its description of gender dysphoria strongly implies that the human mind can exist in the wrong body.
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The Archdiocese of Philadelphia won an important religious liberty case in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled unanimously against the requirement that Catholic Social Services place foster children with same-sex couples.
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Chimeras are hybrid creatures that result when the DNA from two or more individuals or species are mixed. The word chimera comes from ancient Greek mythology. The Chimera was a monster with the body of a lion, the head of a goat protruding from its back, and a tail ending with the head of a snake.
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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.
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The time of greatest significance in our entire existence is the instant of our death. How our souls are disposed at that moment determines our eternal destiny. If we are oriented to God and reject sin, we are on the path to salvation.
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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.
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As a bioethicist I find it unconscionable and astonishing that ethics review of significant scientific research projects is seen as unnecessary by officials at the highest levels in our country.
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As president of The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) and a longtime international pro-life advocate, I have some considerations regarding serious ethical problems related to proposed COVID-19 vaccine passports and how such certificates of immunity could be misused.
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The staff of The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) recently renewed our consecration to St. Joseph as our protector and guardian, especially for our temporal needs.
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There is a Christian and very specifically Catholic wisdom concerning the human body and human sexuality.
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There is a Christian and very specifically Catholic wisdom concerning the human body and human sexuality.
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