Is Death Healthcare?
The advent of Physician-Assisted Suicide sets out the question squarely: Do we now consider death is legitimate “treatment,” a form of “healthcare”?
VSED: A New Form of Assisted Suicide
“Suicide is always as morally objectionable as murder.” ~ Pope St. John Paul II Super Bowl LII is in the books now, and everybody knows that the Philadelphia Eagles were victorious on the field—finally! But what about the real battle of Super Bowl Sunday—that is, who won the contest for best commercial? Doritos and Mountain … Read more
Logan, Technocracy, and the Abolition of Man
The newly released film Logan, the final appearance of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, the metal-clawed and brooding member of the X-Men, is indeed a film heavy on violence and profanity. It does, however, offer a fascinating view of what is possible when man uses technological advancement divorced from any conception of nature and the good. … Read more
Euthanasia Laws Neglect Mental Health Problems
Advocates typically maintain that abuse of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) laws is extremely difficult, and when it comes to the legalization of PAS, we have nothing to worry about. Despite the fact that safeguards designed to prevent abuse are wholesale neglected in other areas of the world where PAS and/or euthanasia have been legalized for any … Read more
The Morality of Self-Injury
The Journal of Medical Ethics, a leading British bioethical journal, has done it again. Back in 2011, they offered us the barbaric thesis of Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva defending infanticide: the two authors argued for “after-birth abortion,” claiming that the killing of a child post-birth would be justifiable if done under “circumstances … that … Read more
Who Are the Real Defenders of Humanity?
The latest advances in science and biotechnology (three-parenting, surrogate motherhood, human enhancement, hybridizing of humans and animals…) have now and again encountered opposition from Christians (and, in varying degrees, from other religious believers), as well as from secular critics for moral, ethical, and legal reasons (the last-mentioned rather half-heartedly in a number of countries recently). … Read more
A New Ars Moriendi to Address Physician-Assisted Suicide
If you live in a state that has not taken up legislation on physician-assisted suicide (PAS), beware. It is coming. PAS has become a volatile issue in state legislatures and the media. Advocates for PAS typically present three arguments to promote its legalization: (1) to relieve the suffering patient of pain, (2) to relieve the … Read more
Hope for a Sane World Dashed Again on the Rocks of Madness
James Christian Aggeles is a paranoid schizophrenic with various personality disorders and grandiose delusions, which came to the forefront after he donated sperm to Xytex Corp., a “fertility company” based in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Aggeles claimed to have an I.Q. of 160 (well above Stephen Hawking’s and Einstein’s), with various degrees, and working on a Ph.D. … Read more
Teaching Death to Nursing Students with Leo Tolstoy
To make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. ~ T. S. Eliot We’ve come to the close of our annual month-long reminder of the obvious: We’re all going to die. It’s a truism that we learned as kids in Sunday school and CCD—the first of the four … Read more
The Medical Profession’s War on Christian Ethics
Over a quarter century ago, Richard John Neuhaus coined the phrase “the naked public square” to describe efforts to drive religiously influenced values and their adherents out of public life and policy making. Neuhaus foresaw the intolerance of the “tolerant” hanging out a “practicing Christians/Jews please check your values here” sign. He also rightly pointed … Read more
Suicide, Homicide, Verbicide … “Dignicide”
Mercatornet, a pro-life blog about end-of-life issues, has just reported the latest doublespeak percolating among the anti-life crowd: “dignicide.” How to describe killing yourself, or getting somebody to kill you? “Murder” is so gauche in our voluntaristic, nominalistic culture in which the will defines reality: can you really be murdered if you agree to being … Read more
Planned Parenthood Defends Do-It-Yourself Abortions in Iowa
Joan Rivers died September 4 in New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital after going into cardiac arrest following what most news outlets reported as “a routine surgical procedure” on her throat at an Upper East Side outpatient clinic. A week after the New York State Health Department began an investigation into the circumstances of her … Read more
Catholic Universities Conduct Research on Rare Diseases
The ALS Association’s viral “ice bucket challenge” has been successful in raising over $90 million dollars to fund research for the prevention, treatment and eventual cure of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The entertaining viral videos of celebrities and “regular” people successfully and sometimes not so successfully dumping full buckets of ice water over their heads … Read more
Sterilization for the Life of the Mother
The newly published preparatory document for the rapidly approaching synod on “Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization” observes that “knowledge of conciliar and post-conciliar documents on … the family … seems to be rather wanting.” Church teachings regarding marriage, sexuality, and family “do not seem to have taken a foothold in … Read more
Good News for Women as More Catholic Physicians Follow Church Teaching
A wave of excitement is gradually making its way through a small community of Catholics in Houston, Texas. Married couples who embrace the Church’s teaching in Humanae vitae and who use natural family planning have waited too long. Houston, which boasts one of the largest and most highly regarded medical systems in the world has, … Read more