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Overview
Making Sense of Bioethics
Father Tad Pacholczyk writes a monthly column called Making Sense of Bioethics that appears in diocesan newspapers across the country. Please share the link to this page with others you know would benefit from Father Tad's concise explanations of the Church's position on crucial and cutting-edge bioethical issues.
Subscriptions to this series or reprints are available from the NCBC for newspapers, parish bulletins, newsletters or journals. For information regarding subscriptions and permissions, please contact Elizabeth Lee.
Many of the columns are also available in Spanish at El Sentido de la Bioética and in Polish at Sens Bioetyki.
Making Sense of Bioethics columns ©2024 The National Catholic Bioethics Center
Reader Feedback
Making Sense of Bioethics
IMPROVING HIGH SCHOOL INSTRUCTION — Father Tad's columns on bioethics have been used to structure and supplement high school ethics classes. Theology teacher Mary Arens used them to teach the Morality Class at St. Mary's High School in Remsen, Iowa — See: "Remsen students use Globe columnist to explore bioethics" (p. 6 of the Catholic Globe, Sioux City, Iowa, April 16th, 2015).
HELPING WITH COMPLEX MORAL DILEMMAS — Father Tad's columns assist Catholics to navigate complex bioethical situations and personal moral dilemmas. During their pregnancy, Dr. Charles Robertson and his wife faced preterm premature rupture of membranes (premature "breaking of the water"), followed by the early delivery of their daughter who lived for only a few hours. As Dr. Robertson noted, "... despite my extensive academic formation in Catholic bioethics, I didn’t know how to evaluate the options the doctors presented to us in the first days of our hospital stay. The anxiety, sadness, and desire for the ordeal just to be over were very intense, and quite ruled out calm reflection... It was an article by Fr. Tad Pacholczyk that pulled me back to myself. His series of articles on issues in bioethics is a great resource for those who find themselves in difficult medical circumstances." See Dr. Robertson's full story here.
Latest Installments
Making Sense of Bioethics
Archives & Topical Index
Making Sense of Bioethics
• Abortion
The Morality of Vaccinating Our Children (August, 2005)
A Painful Presumption (October, 2005)
Thawing the Frozen Embryo Myths (July, 2006)
Sexual Assault and Abortion (January, 2007)
Ethical Blind Spots, Complacency & Nazism (August, 2007)
Getting It Right the Morning After (November, 2007)
When Ideology Corrupts Science and Medicine (February, 2008)
Making Truthful Choices of Conscience (November, 2008)
Verbal Engineering & the Swaying of Public Conscience (February, 2009)
The Twisted Logic Underlying Abortion (July, 2009)
Medicine and the True Cost of Being in Denial (January, 2010)
How Men Are Harmed by Abortion (February, 2010)
Difficult Pregnancies, Precarious Choices, & the Absolute Value of Innocent Lives (July, 2010)
Clear Ethical Thinking & Relativism (January, 2011)
Thinking Clearly About Consciousness and Abortion (November, 2012)
Ethical Directives and the Care of Pregnant Women in Catholic Hospitals (December, 2013)
Violinist Violence (January, 2014)
Undoing a Chemical Abortion (March, 2015)
The Expendable Children (August, 2017)
The Wrong-Headedness of “Wrongful Birth” Lawsuits (March, 2018)
Promethean Medical Temptations (July, 2018)
Abortion Funding — Cutting off the Blood Supply (November, 2018)
The Welcome Outreach of Perinatal Hospice (January, 2019)
“Exceptions” and the Undermining of the Moral Law. (February, 2019)
The Corpse Raiders (May, 2019)
An Authentic Democracy (July, 2019)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
Christian Girls and Abortion (January, 2020)
Must Catholics Refuse a COVID-19 Vaccine Made With a Cell Line from an Abortion? (November, 2020)
Vaccines and Other Entanglements with Abortion (December, 2020)
Countering Catholic Misinformation About Vaccines (March, 2021)
Decisions of Consequence (August, 2021)
New Cures from Embryonic Stem Cells? (October, 2021)
Dehumanizing One Another (February, 2022)
Treasuring Our Future Timelines (March, 2022)
A Great Nation Begins to Come to Its Senses (April, 2022)
• Addiction and Substance Abuse
Safe Injection Sites & Tackling IV Drug Abuse (July, 2008)
Clearing the Air Around Marijuana Use (June, 2014)
At the Heart of the Tragedy of Addiction (January, 2016)
The Smoke over Medical Marijuana (June, 2018)
Opioids, Pain Management & Addiction (September, 2018)
Psychedelic Drugs and New Mental Health Treatments (September, 2022)
• Advance Directives
(See: Health Care Proxy/Surrogate and Living Wills)
• AIDS and HIV
Conundrum with Condoms (June, 2006)
Sorting Through “Solutions” to the HIV-AIDS Pandemic (February, 2018)
• Alternative Medicine
The Ethics of New Age Medicine (April, 2017)
The Smoke over Medical Marijuana (June, 2018)
Psychedelic Drugs and New Mental Health Treatments (September, 2022)
Evaluating Medical Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy (August, 2024)
• Animal/Human Hybrids and Chimeras
Half Human, Half Animal? (June, 2008)
Human Organs from Pigs (February, 2016)
The Ethics of Pig to Human Organ Transplants (December, 2021)
• Animal/Human Similarities and Divergences
'Animal Rights' vs Human Rights (October, 2006)
True Compassion in the Midst of Tragedy (September, 2007)
A Higher Standard than for Cats and Dogs (December, 2015)
• Artificial Insemination
When the Kids Grow Up and Find Out About the Test Tubes (August, 2010)
Is Artificial Insemination Wrong Even Among Married Couples? (August, 2014)
Banking Sperm and Eggs before Cancer Treatments (June, 2015)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
Considering the Options for Infertile Couples (July, 2017)
Cowboys, Infertility and Deeper Moral Questions (April, 2018)
Securing Authentic Children’s Rights (June, 2019)
Poking the Hornet’s Nest of IVF (March, 2024)
• Artificial Nutrition & Hydration
Are Feeding Tubes Required? (December, 2006)
Feeding Our Loved Ones & the Anathema of Living With Brain Damage (January, 2008)
Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope (March, 2010)
Towards Passive Euthanasia (April, 2010)
What is VSED and Why Should It Matter to Us (May, 2015)
• Artificial Organisms/Synthetic Cells
Overselling the Synthetic Cell (June, 2010)
• Banking of Sperm and Eggs
Recapturing the Soul of Bioethics (April, 2007)
When the Kids Grow Up and Find Out About the Test Tubes (August, 2010)
Banking Sperm and Eggs before Cancer Treatments (June, 2015)
Can I Donate My Body to Science (June, 2017)
Cowboys, Infertility and Deeper Moral Questions (April, 2018)
• Birth Control and Contraception
Conundrum with Condoms (June, 2006)
Thinking about Sex and Marital Surrender (March, 2007)
Contraceptive Contradictions (July, 2007)
Sex & Little Pills: Viagra and Birth Control (August, 2008)
A Future Pregnancy Would Be Too Risky (January, 2009)
Verbal Engineering & the Swaying of Public Conscience (February, 2009)
NFP and the Telos of Sex (May, 2011)
To Give or Not to Give (October, 2011)
Nickels, Dimes and Family Size (February, 2012)
The Pill as Health Care? (January, 2013)
Debating Birth Control in the Public Square (February, 2013)
A Path of Renewal for Sterilized Couples (April, 2014)
Catholics and Acceptable Uses of Contraceptives (March, 2016)
The “Bitter Pill” of False Liberation (December, 2017)
Eugenics, Forced Sterilization, and Protecting the Mentally-Challenged (November, 2021)
• Bodily Enhancement/Mutilation
Plastic Perfection? The Ethics of Breast Implants (April, 2008)
Drastic Measures & Cancer Decisions (March, 2011)
Taboos and Tattoos (December, 2012)
Medical Assistance with the Battle of the Bulge (February, 2015)
Changing My Body To “Match” My “Identity?" (July, 2015)
Nobody Gets Hurt? (April, 2019)
Language — Veiling or Unveiling Moral Truth (June, 2020)
Challenging the Establishment on Childhood Gender Transitions (May 2021)
Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and the Tragic Seduction of Our Daughters (June, 2023)
The Ethics of Neuroimplants and Brain-Computer Interfaces (October, 2023)
Catholic Hospitals and “Gender Reassignment” for Minors? (October, 2024)
• Body Worlds Exhibit
Bodies in Plastic (November, 2006)
• Brain Death
Brain Dead Means Dead (November, 2005)
Does the Catholic Church Have Doubts About Brain Death? (June, 2011)
Brain Dead & Pregnant (February, 2014)
Holding the Line on Brain Death (February, 2023)
• Breast Augmentation
Plastic Perfection? The Ethics of Breast Implants (April, 2008)
• Breast Cancer Treatment
Drastic Measures & Cancer Decisions (March, 2011)
• Caring for the Elderly & Infirm
Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope (March, 2010)
Defending the Dignity of Those with Dementia (October, 2010)
Working through a Hard Death (February, 2011)
Bringing Christ to the Clinic (August, 2011)
Talking Americans Down From the Assisted-Suicide Ledge (October, 2012)
Esteeming Our Elders and Fostering Solidarity across Generations (January, 2015)
On Aging Gracefully (April, 2016)
Palliative Sedation While Approaching Death (September, 2019)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
A Hundred Love Letters (February, 2020)
The "Quality of Life" Error (January, 2021)
Seeking the Spiritual Side of Dementia (October, 2022)
• Charitable Donations
The Ethics of Donating Money to Charitable Foundations (October, 2013)
• Cloning
Good Ends, Evil Means & Fraudulent Science (January, 2006)
Fetal Farming and the New Slavery (May, 2006)
Recapturing the Soul of Bioethics (April, 2007)
Soulless Clones and Spineless Men (October, 2007)
Half Human, Half Animal? (June, 2008)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
• Condoms
Conundrum with Condoms (June, 2006)
• Conscience
"Imposing our Beliefs" on Others (September, 2005)
When Ideology Corrupts Science and Medicine (February, 2008)
Making Truthful Choices of Conscience (November, 2008)
Verbal Engineering & the Swaying of Public Conscience (February, 2009)
Stem Cell Ethics and the Things We Refuse to Do (December, 2009)
Clear Ethical Thinking & Relativism (January, 2011)
Universal Morality and the Natural Law (August, 2013)
Sex, Truth & the Illumination of Our Guilt (November, 2013)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
Pushing Back Against Evil (October, 2019)
Language — Veiling or Unveiling Moral Truth (June, 2020)
Must Catholics Refuse a COVID-19 Vaccine Made With a Cell Line from an Abortion? (November, 2020)
Decisions of Consequence (August, 2021)
A Great Nation Begins to Come to Its Senses (April, 2022)
• Conscience Rights
When Ideology Corrupts Science and Medicine (February, 2008)
The Courage to Refuse to Cooperate in Evil (April, 2011)
Federal Mandates and the Crushing of Religious Freedom (March, 2012)
Is it Wrong for Me Now to Buy Health Insurance? (July,2013)
Jailed for Defending Marriage (September, 2015)
When Is It a Sin to Make a Referral? (October, 2017)
Is Mandating a COVID-19 Vaccine Ethical? (September, 2020)
Vaccine Mandates and Catholic Colleges (April, 2021)
• Contraception
(See: Birth Control and Contraception)
• Cooperation in Evil
The Courage to Refuse to Cooperate in Evil (April, 2011)
The Morality and Wisdom of Incremental Legislation (May, 2013)
Is it Wrong for Me Now to Buy Health Insurance? (July, 2013)
The Ethics of Donating Money to Charitable Foundations (October, 2013)
When Is It a Sin to Make a Referral? (October, 2017)
Pushing Back Against Evil (October, 2019)
The Foxes and the Henhouse (December, 2019)
Christian Girls and Abortion (January, 2020)
New Cures from Embryonic Stem Cells? (October, 2021)
Catholic Hospitals and “Gender Reassignment” for Minors? (October, 2024)
• COVID-19
Thinking Through the Rationing of Ventilators (March, 2020)
Accelerating Vaccine Development (April, 2020)
Spiritual Lessons from the Pandemic (May, 2020)
COVID-19 Vaccine Myths (August, 2020)
Is Mandating a COVID-19 Vaccine Ethical? (September, 2020)
Should I Get Vaccinated? (October, 2020)
Must Catholics Refuse a COVID-19 Vaccine Made With a Cell Line from an Abortion? (November, 2020)
Vaccines and Other Entanglements with Abortion (December, 2020)
Should We Take Whatever Vaccine is Offered? (February, 2021)
Countering Catholic Misinformation About Vaccines (March, 2021)
Vaccine Mandates and Catholic Colleges (April, 2021)
New Cures from Embryonic Stem Cells? (October, 2021)
• Death and Dying
Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope (March, 2010)
Towards Passive Euthanasia (April, 2010)
Defending the Dignity of Those with Dementia (October, 2010)
Facing Terminal Illnesses Realistically (November, 2010)
Working through a Hard Death (February, 2011)
Bringing Christ to the Clinic (August, 2011)
Powerlessness, or the Hidden Power in Our Suffering? (May, 2012)
Talking Americans Down From the Assisted-Suicide Ledge (October, 2012)
On Aging Gracefully (April, 2016)
Can I Donate My Body to Science? (June, 2017)
Destroying My Freedom — in the Name of Freedom? (November, 2017)
To Be or Not to Be — Parsing the Implications of Suicide (January, 2018)
The Welcome Outreach of Perinatal Hospice (January, 2019)
Palliative Sedation While Approaching Death (September, 2019)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
A Hundred Love Letters (February, 2020)
Thinking Through the Rationing of Ventilators (March, 2020)
The "Quality of Life" Error (January 2021)
Too Much Morphine? (January, 2022)
Did I Make the Right Choices as Dad was Dying? (November, 2022)
Holding the Line on Brain Death (February, 2023)
The Most Serious Miscalculation of All? (May, 2024)
Contextualizing Near-Death Experiences (June, 2024)
• Dementia
Towards Passive Euthanasia (April, 2010)
Defending the Dignity of Those with Dementia (October, 2010)
Seeking the Spiritual Side of Dementia (October, 2022)
• Dialysis
Deciding About Dialysis (September, 2012)
• Disabilities and the Disabled
Feeding Our Loved Ones & the Anathema of Living With Brain Damage (January, 2008)
Defending the Dignity of Those with Dementia (October, 2010)
Unconditional Parental Love (December, 2011)
Loving Those with Disabilities (August, 2012)
Leaving Our Values at the Door of the Strip Club (September, 2016)
The Wrong-Headedness of “Wrongful Birth” Lawsuits (March, 2018)
The Welcome Outreach of Perinatal Hospice (January, 2019)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
The "Quality of Life" Error (January 2021)
Eugenics, Forced Sterilization, and Protecting the Mentally-Challenged (November, 2021)
The Ethics of Neuroimplants and Brain-Computer Interfaces (October, 2023)
Evaluating Medical Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy (August, 2024)
• DNR's
Going Too Far with DNR? (April, 2013)
• Drug Abuse
Safe Injection Sites & Tackling IV Drug Abuse (July, 2008)
Clearing the Air Around Marijuana Use (June, 2014)
At the Heart of the Tragedy of Addiction (January, 2016)
The Smoke over Medical Marijuana (June, 2018)
Opioids, Pain Management & Addiction (September, 2018)
• Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare
(See: Health Care Proxy/Surrogate)
• Ectopic Pregnancy
When Pregnancy Goes Awry (October, 2009)
• Embryos
Novel Ideas for Stem Cells Without Embryos (July, 2005)
Good Ends, Evil Means & Fraudulent Science (January, 2006)
Theology, or Embryology? (February, 2006)
Thawing the Frozen Embryo Myths (July, 2006)
Guilt-Free Pluripotent Stem Cells? (September, 2006)
Recapturing the Soul of Bioethics (April, 2007)
Acorns and Embryos (May, 2007)
Debating the Embryo's Fate (June, 2007)
Ethical Blind Spots, Complacency & Nazism (August, 2007)
The Holy Grail of Reprogramming - A New Era for Stem Cells (December, 2007)
Do Embryos Have Souls? (March, 2008)
Fire in the Clinic! (May, 2008)
Half Human, Half Animal? (June, 2008)
Germany and Italy Have Done It — Shouldn't We? (December, 2008)
What Should We Do with the Frozen Embryos? (June, 2009)
Stem Cell Ethics and the Things We Refuse to Do (December, 2009)
Humans in Frozen Orphanages (December, 2010)
Human Stockpiling (September, 2011)
The Embryo That Grew Up (July, 2012)
Thinking Clearly About Consciousness and Abortion (November, 2012)
Renegade Researchers and the Future of Biomedical Research (July, 2014)
Pondering the Implications of Three-Parent Embryos (April, 2015)
Embryos & the 14-Day Rule (May, 2016)
Orphans in Liquid Nitrogen (November, 2016)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
The Expendable Children (August, 2017)
Cowboys, Infertility and Deeper Moral Questions (April, 2018)
It's Not Just About the Frozen Embryos (March, 2019)
New Cures from Embryonic Stem Cells? (October, 2021)
What About Synthetic Embryos? (May, 2023)
Poking the Hornet’s Nest of IVF (March, 2024)
• End of Life Decision Making
Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope (March, 2010)
Towards Passive Euthanasia (April, 2010)
Defending the Dignity of Those with Dementia (October, 2010)
Facing Terminal Illnesses Realistically (November, 2010)
Working through a Hard Death (February, 2011)
Bringing Christ to the Clinic (August, 2011)
Powerlessness, or the Hidden Power in Our Suffering? (May, 2012)
What About Ventilators? (June, 2012)
Deciding About Dialysis (September, 2012)
Going Too Far with DNR? (April, 2013)
Proxies and POLSTs (September, 2014)
Can I Donate My Body to Science? (June, 2017)
To Be or Not to Be — Parsing the Implications of Suicide (January, 2018)
Promethean Medical Temptations (July, 2018)
The Welcome Outreach of Perinatal Hospice (January, 2019)
Palliative Sedation While Approaching Death (September, 2019)
Thinking Through the Rationing of Ventilators (March, 2020)
The "Quality of Life" Error (January, 2021)
Too Much Morphine? (January, 2022)
Did I Make the Right Choices as Dad was Dying? (November, 2022)
Holding the Line on Brain Death (February, 2023)
The Most Serious Miscalculation of All? (May, 2024)
• Ensoulment
Do Embryos Have Souls? (March, 2008)
• Erectile Dysfunction
Sex & Little Pills: Viagra and Birth Control (August, 2008)
• Ethics of Athletics and Sports
The Moral Analysis of Boxing (July, 2021)
• Eugenics
Temptations in Prenatal Testing (August, 2006)
Unconditional Parental Love (December, 2011)
Editing Our Own Genes (May, 2014)
Tragedies in Human Medical Experimentation (July, 2020)
Eugenics, Forced Sterilization, and Protecting the Mentally-Challenged (November, 2021)
• Euthanasia
True Compassion in the Midst of Tragedy (September, 2007)
The Authentic Transformation Of 'Useless' Human Suffering (August, 2009)
Euthanasia - Broken Memories, Broken Bonds (November, 2009)
Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope (March, 2010)
Towards Passive Euthanasia (April, 2010)
A Higher Standard than for Cats and Dogs (December, 2015)
Destroying My Freedom — in the Name of Freedom? (November, 2017)
Promethean Medical Temptations (July, 2018)
“Exceptions” and the Undermining of the Moral Law. (February, 2019)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
A Hundred Love Letters (February, 2020)
The “Quality of Life” Error (January, 2021)
Dehumanizing One Another (February, 2022)
The Most Serious Miscalculation of All? (May, 2024)
• Feeding Tubes
(See: Artificial Nutrition and Hydration)
• Fertility Awareness Based Methods of Achieving or Spacing Pregnancy [FABM's]
A Future Pregnancy Would Be Too Risky (January, 2009)
NFP and the Telos of Sex (May, 2011)
Nickels, Dimes and Family Size (February, 2012)
Considering the Options for Infertile Couples (July, 2017)
• Fetal Tissue Harvesting
The Morality of Vaccinating Our Children (August, 2005)
Fetal Farming and the New Slavery (May, 2006)
Consenting to the Unconscionable (August, 2015)
The Corpse Raiders (May, 2019)
Accelerating Vaccine Development (April, 2020)
Should I Get Vaccinated? (October, 2020)
New Cures from Embryonic Stem Cells? (October, 2021)
• Frozen Embryos
Babies in Test Tubes (December, 2005)
Thawing the Frozen Embryo Myths (July, 2006)
Ethical Blind Spots, Complacency & Nazism (August, 2007)
Fire in the Clinic! (May, 2008)
Germany and Italy Have Done It — Shouldn't We? (December, 2008)
What Should We Do with the Frozen Embryos? (June, 2009)
Humans in Frozen Orphanages (December, 2010)
Human Stockpiling (September, 2011)
Orphans in Liquid Nitrogen (November, 2016)
It's Not Just About the Frozen Embryos (March, 2019)
Poking the Hornet’s Nest of IVF (March, 2024)
• Gay Marriage
(See: Homosexuality and Gay Marriage)
• Gender Identity Issues and Gender Dysphoria
(See: Transgender)
• Genetics and Genome Editing
Editing Our Own Genes (May, 2014)
Pondering the Implications of Three-Parent Embryos (April, 2015)
The Expendable Children (August, 2017)
Gene-Edited Babies and the Runaway Train of IVF (December, 2018)
The Foxes and the Henhouse (December, 2019)
The Ethics of Pig to Human Organ Transplants (December, 2021)
• Health Care Proxy/Surrogate
Should I Have a Living Will? (February, 2007)
Proxies and POLSTs (September, 2014)
• HIV
(See: AIDS and HIV)
• Homosexuality & Gay Marriage
Sex & Little Pills: Viagra and Birth Control (August, 2008)
Gay Genes & Chastity (July, 2011)
Facing the Downstream Effects of Same-Sex Parenting (March, 2013)
Perversions and Purposes in Human Sexuality (June, 2013)
Discrimination and Human Genital Sexuality (March, 2014)
Redefining Marriage (October, 2014)
Jailed for Defending Marriage (September, 2015)
The Mystery of Male-Female Complementarity (October, 2015)
I'm Not Intrinsically Disordered (March, 2017)
Sex in Accord with Reason (September, 2017)
Sorting Through “Solutions” to the HIV-AIDS Pandemic (February, 2018)
Sexual Orientation- Hope for Restoration and Healing with SOCE (October, 2018)
Homosexual Men and Chaste Friendships (May, 2022)
• Human Sexuality
Babies in Test Tubes (December, 2005)
Thinking about Sex and Marital Surrender (March, 2007)
Contraceptive Contradictions (July, 2007)
A Future Pregnancy Would Be Too Risky (January, 2009)
The Twisted Logic Underlying Abortion (July, 2009)
Gay Genes & Chastity (July, 2011)
Vaccinating Our Children for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (November, 2011)
The Premarital Sex Test Drive (January, 2012)
Perversions and Purposes in Human Sexuality (June, 2013)
The Darkened Eye of Pornography (September, 2013)
Sex, Truth & the Illumination of Our Guilt (November, 2013)
Discrimination and Human Genital Sexuality (March, 2014)
The Mystery of Male-Female Complementarity (October, 2015)
Talking to Kids About Porn and Human Sexuality (August, 2016)
Thinking Through the Temptation of Cohabitation (January, 2017)
I'm Not Intrinsically Disordered (March, 2017)
Sex in Accord with Reason (September, 2017)
The “Bitter Pill” of False Liberation (December, 2017)
Sorting Through “Solutions” to the HIV-AIDS Pandemic (February, 2018)
Sexual Orientation- Hope for Restoration and Healing with SOCE (October, 2018)
Nobody Gets Hurt? (April, 2019)
Christian Girls and Abortion (January, 2020)
Language — Veiling or Unveiling Moral Truth? (June, 2020)
Sexual Atoms and Molecules (September, 2021)
Eugenics, Forced Sterilization, and Protecting the Mentally-Challenged (November, 2021)
Young Women Giving Themselves Away For Nothing (January, 2023)
Catholic Hospitals and “Gender Reassignment” for Minors? (October, 2024)
• "Imposing Our Beliefs"
"Imposing our Beliefs" on Others (September, 2005)
Jailed for Defending Marriage (September, 2015)
Abortion Funding — Cutting off the Blood Supply (November, 2018)
An Authentic Democracy (July, 2019)
Pushing Back Against Evil (October, 2019)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
The Foxes and the Henhouse (December, 2019)
Language — Veiling or Unveiling Moral Truth? (June, 2020)
Setting a Moral Vision as Parents (April, 2023)
Poking the Hornet’s Nest of IVF (March, 2024)
The Most Serious Miscalculation of All? (May, 2024)
Catholic Hospitals and “Gender Reassignment” for Minors? (October, 2024)
• Infertility
Germany and Italy Have Done It — Shouldn't We? (December, 2008)
Parental Desires, Children and IVF (March, 2009)
Banking Sperm and Eggs before Cancer Treatments (June, 2015)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
Considering the Options for Infertile Couples (July, 2017)
Cowboys, Infertility and Deeper Moral Questions (April, 2018)
It's Not Just About the Frozen Embryos (March, 2019)
Surrogacy and Child Trafficking (February, 2024)
Poking the Hornet’s Nest of IVF (March, 2024)
• Informed Consent
Bodies in Plastic (November, 2006)
Procuring Organs Over My Dead Body (May, 2010)
Consenting to the Unconscionable (August, 2015)
The Corpse Raiders (May, 2019)
Tragedies in Human Medical Experimentation (July, 2020)
Sexual Atoms and Molecules (September, 2021)
• Intersex
Seeing through the Intersex Confusion (June, 2016)
• Intrauterine Insemination
When the Kids Grow Up and Find Out About the Test Tubes (August, 2010)
Is Artificial Insemination Wrong Even Among Married Couples? (August, 2014)
Banking Sperm and Eggs before Cancer Treatments (June, 2015)
Considering the Options for Infertile Couples (July, 2017)
• In Vitro Fertilization
Babies in Test Tubes (December, 2005)
Thinking about Sex and Marital Surrender (March, 2007)
Recapturing the Soul of Bioethics (April, 2007)
Ethical Blind Spots, Complacency & Nazism (August, 2007)
Germany and Italy Have Done It — Shouldn't We? (December, 2008)
Parental Desires, Children and IVF (March, 2009)
The Ethics Of 'Correcting' Mitochondrial Disease (September, 2009)
When the Kids Grow Up and Find Out About the Test Tubes (August, 2010)
Pondering the Implications of Three-Parent Embryos (April, 2015)
Banking Sperm and Eggs before Cancer Treatments (June, 2015)
The Multiple Moral Problems of Surrogacy (October, 2016)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
Considering the Options for Infertile Couples (July, 2017)
The Expendable Children (August, 2017)
Cowboys, Infertility and Deeper Moral Questions (April, 2018)
Promethean Medical Temptations (July, 2018)
Gene-Edited Babies and the Runaway Train of IVF (December, 2018)
It's Not Just About the Frozen Embryos (March, 2019)
Securing Authentic Children’s Rights (June, 2019)
Surrogacy and Child Trafficking (February, 2024)
Poking the Hornet’s Nest of IVF (March, 2024)
• Law and Ethics
"Imposing our Beliefs" on Others (September, 2005)
Recapturing the Soul of Bioethics (April, 2007)
Voting to Make a Difference (September, 2008)
Germany and Italy Have Done It — Shouldn't We? (December, 2008)
Verbal Engineering & the Swaying of Public Conscience (February, 2009)
Procuring Organs Over My Dead Body (May, 2010)
Debating Birth Control in the Public Square (February, 2013)
The Morality and Wisdom of Incremental Legislation (May, 2013)
Clearing the Air Around Marijuana Use (June, 2014)
When Is It a Sin to Make a Referral? (October, 2017)
The Wrong-Headedness of “Wrongful Birth” Lawsuits (March, 2018)
The Smoke over Medical Marijuana (June, 2018)
Can We Pay Others to Donate a Kidney? (August, 2018)
Abortion Funding — Cutting off the Blood Supply (November, 2018)
“Exceptions” and the Undermining of the Moral Law (February, 2019)
An Authentic Democracy (July, 2019)
Contradictory Suicide Messaging (August, 2019)
The Foxes and the Henhouse (December, 2019)
Poking the Hornet’s Nest of IVF (March, 2024)
• Living Wills
Should I Have a Living Will? (February, 2007)
Going Too Far with DNR? (April, 2013)
Proxies and POLSTs (September, 2014)
• Marriage
Perversions and Purposes in Human Sexuality (June, 2013)
A Path of Renewal for Sterilized Couples (April, 2014)
Is Artificial Insemination Wrong Even Among Married Couples? (August, 2014)
Redefining Marriage (October, 2014)
Jailed for Defending Marriage (September, 2015)
The Mystery of Male-Female Complementarity (October, 2015)
Considering the Options for Infertile Couples (July, 2017)
What Young People Could Most Profit From Hearing About Marriage (June, 2021)
• Masturbation
Perversions and Purposes in Human Sexuality (June, 2013)
Sex in Accord with Reason (September, 2017)
• Maternal-Fetal Conflicts
(See: Pregnancy Complications and Dilemmas)
• Medical Professionals — Ethics, Pastoral and Spiritual
True Compassion in the Midst of Tragedy (September, 2007)
When Ideology Corrupts Science and Medicine (February, 2008)
Medicine and the True Cost of Being in Denial (January, 2010)
Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope (March, 2010)
Bringing Christ to the Clinic (August, 2011)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
Language — Veiling or Unveiling Moral Truth? (June, 2020)
Challenging the Establishment on Childhood Gender Transitions (May 2021)
Catholic Hospitals and “Gender Reassignment” for Minors? (October, 2024)
• Mitochondrial Diseases
The Ethics Of 'Correcting' Mitochondrial Disease (September, 2009)
Pondering the Implications of Three-Parent Embryos (April, 2015)
• Natural Family Planning
(See: Fertility Awareness Based Methods of Spacing and Achieving Pregnancy)
• Natural Law
Making Truthful Choices of Conscience (November, 2008)
Verbal Engineering & the Swaying of Public Conscience (February, 2009)
Thinking about Moral Absolutes (May, 2009)
Clear Ethical Thinking & Relativism (January, 2011)
Black & White, or Gray? (April, 2012)
Universal Morality and the Natural Law (August, 2013)
The Mystery of Male-Female Complementarity (October, 2015)
It’s Not Wrong, If It Feels Right! (December, 2016)
Language — Veiling or Unveiling Moral Truth? (June, 2020)
A Great Nation Begins to Come to Its Senses (April, 2022)
• Needle Exchange Programs
Safe Injection Sites & Tackling IV Drug Abuse (July, 2008)
• Neurological Criterion for Determination of Death
(See: Brain Death)
• New Age Medicine
(See: Alternative Medicine)
• Obesity
Medical Assistance with the Battle of the Bulge (February, 2015)
• Ordinary/Extraordinary Means
(See: Proportionate/Disproportionate Means)
• Organ Donation & Transplantation
Brain Dead Means Dead (November, 2005)
Recapturing the Soul of Bioethics (April, 2007)
Procuring Organs Over My Dead Body (May, 2010)
Can I Donate My Body to Science? (June, 2017)
Can We Pay Others to Donate a Kidney? (August, 2018)
The Corpse Raiders (May, 2019)
The Ethics of Pig to Human Organ Transplants (December, 2021)
Holding the Line on Brain Death (February, 2023)
• Pain Management, Palliative Care & Hospice
The Authentic Transformation Of 'Useless' Human Suffering (August, 2009)
Euthanasia - Broken Memories, Broken Bonds (November, 2009)
Facing Terminal Illnesses Realistically (November, 2010)
Working through a Hard Death (February, 2011)
Physician-Assisted Suicide and Confronting Our Fears (November, 2014)
What is VSED and Why Should It Matter to Us (May, 2015)
To Be or Not to Be — Parsing the Implications of Suicide (January, 2018)
Opioids, Pain Management & Addiction (September, 2018)
The Welcome Outreach of Perinatal Hospice (January, 2019)
Palliative Sedation While Approaching Death (September, 2019)
A Hundred Love Letters (February, 2020)
The “Quality of Life” Error (January, 2021)
Too Much Morphine? (January, 2022)
• Parenting
Temptations in Prenatal Testing (August, 2006)
Thinking about Sex and Marital Surrender (March, 2007)
Fire in the Clinic! (May, 2008)
Half Human, Half Animal? (June, 2008)
Parental Desires, Children and IVF (March, 2009)
How Men Are Harmed by Abortion (February, 2010)
Unconditional Parental Love (December, 2011)
Facing the Downstream Effects of Same-Sex Parenting (March, 2013)
Pondering the Implications of Three-Parent Embryos (April, 2015)
Parents and “Sex Ed” (November, 2015)
Talking to Kids About Porn and Human Sexuality (August, 2016)
Thinking Through the Temptation of Cohabitation (January, 2017)
Sex in Accord with Reason (September, 2017)
The Wrong-Headedness of “Wrongful Birth” Lawsuits (March, 2018)
Cowboys, Infertility and Deeper Moral Questions (April, 2018)
Securing Authentic Children’s Rights (June, 2019)
Christian Girls and Abortion (January, 2020)
Challenging the Establishment on Childhood Gender Transitions (May 2021)
What Young People Could Most Profit From Hearing About Marriage (June, 2021)
Suicidal Fears and Authentic Accompaniment (March, 2023)
Setting a Moral Vision as Parents (April, 2023)
Surrogacy and Child Trafficking (February, 2024)
Evaluating Medical Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy (August, 2024)
• Persistent Vegetative State (PVS)
Brain Dead Means Dead (November, 2005)
Feeding Our Loved Ones & the Anathema of Living With Brain Damage (January, 2008)
Towards Passive Euthanasia (April, 2010)
• Physician-Assisted Suicide
The Authentic Transformation Of 'Useless' Human Suffering (August, 2009)
Talking Americans Down From the Assisted-Suicide Ledge (October, 2012)
Physician-Assisted Suicide and Confronting Our Fears (November, 2014)
What is VSED and Why Should It Matter to Us (May, 2015)
A Higher Standard than for Cats and Dogs (December, 2015)
On Aging Gracefully (April, 2016)
Destroying My Freedom — in the Name of Freedom? (November, 2017)
To Be or Not to Be — Parsing the Implications of Suicide (January, 2018)
Promethean Medical Temptations (July, 2018)
Contradictory Suicide Messaging (August, 2019)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
A Hundred Love Letters (February, 2020)
The “Quality of Life” Error (January, 2021)
The Most Serious Miscalculation of All? (May, 2024)
• POLST Forms
Proxies and POLSTs (September, 2014)
• Pornography
The Darkened Eye of Pornography (September, 2013)
Talking to Kids About Porn and Human Sexuality (August, 2016)
Leaving Our Values at the Door of the Strip Club (September, 2016)
Young Women Giving Themselves Away For Nothing (January, 2023)
• Pregnancy Complications and Dilemmas
A Future Pregnancy Would Be Too Risky (January, 2009)
When Pregnancy Goes Awry (October, 2009)
Difficult Pregnancies, Precarious Choices, & the Absolute Value of Innocent Lives (July, 2010)
Ethical Directives and the Care of Pregnant Women in Catholic Hospitals (December, 2013)
Brain Dead & Pregnant (February, 2014)
Considering the Options for Infertile Couples (July, 2017)
The Wrong-Headedness of “Wrongful Birth” Lawsuits (March, 2018)
The Welcome Outreach of Perinatal Hospice (January, 2019)
Decisions of Consequence (August, 2021)
Evaluating Medical Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy (August, 2024)
• Premarital Sex
The Premarital Sex Test Drive (January, 2012)
Perversions and Purposes in Human Sexuality (June, 2013)
Thinking Through the Temptation of Cohabitation (January, 2017)
The “Bitter Pill” of False Liberation (December, 2017)
Sorting Through “Solutions” to the HIV-AIDS Pandemic (February, 2018)
Christian Girls and Abortion (January, 2020)
What Young People Could Most Profit From Hearing About Marriage (June, 2021)
Sexual Atoms and Molecules (September, 2021)
Young Women Giving Themselves Away For Nothing (January, 2023)
• Prenatal Testing
Temptations in Prenatal Testing (August, 2006)
Unconditional Parental Love (December, 2011)
Loving Those with Disabilities (August, 2012)
The Welcome Outreach of Perinatal Hospice (January, 2019)
• Prophylactic Mastectomy
(See: Breast Cancer Treatment)
• Proportionate/Disproportionate Means
Are Feeding Tubes Required? (December, 2006)
Feeding Our Loved Ones & the Anathema of Living With Brain Damage (January, 2008)
Towards Passive Euthanasia (April, 2010)
Facing Terminal Illnesses Realistically (November, 2010)
What About Ventilators (June, 2012)
Deciding About Dialysis (September, 2012)
Going Too Far with DNR? (April, 2013)
Palliative Sedation While Approaching Death (September, 2019)
Thinking Through the Rationing of Ventilators (March, 2020)
Too Much Morphine? (January, 2022)
• Research Ethics
Good Ends, Evil Means & Fraudulent Science (January, 2006)
Editing Our Own Genes (May, 2014)
Renegade Researchers and the Future of Biomedical Research (July, 2014)
Consenting to the Unconscionable (August, 2015)
Embryos & the 14-Day Rule (May, 2016)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
Can I Donate My Body to Science? (June, 2017)
The Expendable Children (August, 2017)
Promethean Medical Temptations (July, 2018)
Gene-Edited Babies and the Runaway Train of IVF (December, 2018)
The Foxes and the Henhouse (December, 2019)
Accelerating Vaccine Development (April, 2020)
Tragedies in Human Medical Experimentation (July, 2020)
What About Synthetic Embryos? (May, 2023)
The Ethics of Neuroimplants and Brain-Computer Interfaces (October, 2023)
• Respect for the Remains of the Dead
Bodies in Plastic (November, 2006)
Consenting to the Unconscionable (August, 2015)
Cremains and Respect for the Human Body (July, 2016)
Can I Donate My Body to Science? (June, 2017)
Dissolving the Dead (December, 2022)
• RU-486
Undoing a Chemical Abortion (March, 2015)
Decisions of Consequence (August, 2021)
Treasuring Our Future Timelines (March, 2022)
• Sacraments
Bringing Christ to the Clinic (August, 2011)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
• Safe Injection Sites
(See: Needle Exchange Programs)
• Same Sex Parenting
Facing the Downstream Effects of Same-Sex Parenting (March, 2013)
Securing Authentic Children’s Rights (June, 2019)
• Science & Religion
"Imposing our Beliefs" on Others (September, 2005)
Theology, or Embryology? (February, 2006)
When Ideology Corrupts Science and Medicine (February, 2008)
Are Science and Religion Really Enemies? (October, 2008)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
The Foxes and the Henhouse (December, 2019)
Contextualizing Near-Death Experiences (June, 2024)
• Sexual Assault
Sexual Assault and Abortion (January, 2007)
Getting It Right the Morning After (November, 2007)
Violinist Violence (January, 2014)
Treasuring Our Future Timelines (March, 2022)
• Sex Education
Conundrum with Condoms (June, 2006)
Contraceptive Contradictions (July, 2007)
How Men Are Harmed by Abortion (February, 2010)
Facing the Downstream Effects of Same-Sex Parenting (March, 2013)
Sex, Truth & the Illumination of Our Guilt (November, 2013)
The Mystery of Male-Female Complementarity (October, 2015)
Parents and “Sex Ed” (November, 2015)
Talking to Kids About Porn and Human Sexuality (August, 2016)
Sex in Accord with Reason (September, 2017)
The “Bitter Pill” of False Liberation (December, 2017)
Christian Girls and Abortion (January, 2020)
Sexual Atoms and Molecules (September, 2021)
Young Women Giving Themselves Away For Nothing (January, 2023)
• Stem Cell Research
Novel Ideas for Stem Cells Without Embryos (July, 2005)
Good Ends, Evil Means & Fraudulent Science (January, 2006)
Theology, or Embryology? (February, 2006)
Fetal Farming and the New Slavery (May, 2006)
Thawing the Frozen Embryo Myths (July, 2006)
Guilt-Free Pluripotent Stem Cells? (September, 2006)
Recapturing the Soul of Bioethics (April, 2007)
Debating the Embryo's Fate (June, 2007)
The Holy Grail of Reprogramming - A New Era for Stem Cells (December, 2007)
Half Human, Half Animal? (June, 2008)
The Obama Stem Cell Darkness (April, 2009)
Stem Cell Ethics and the Things We Refuse to Do (December, 2009)
Spinning Stem Cell Fairy Tales (September, 2010)
Renegade Researchers and the Future of Biomedical Research (July, 2014)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
New Cures from Embryonic Stem Cells? (October, 2021)
What About Synthetic Embryos? (May, 2023)
• Sterilization
A Future Pregnancy Would Be Too Risky (January, 2009)
To Give or Not to Give (October, 2011)
A Path of Renewal for Sterilized Couples (April, 2014)
Eugenics, Forced Sterilization, and Protecting the Mentally-Challenged (November, 2021)
• Suffering
The Authentic Transformation Of 'Useless' Human Suffering (August, 2009)
Euthanasia - Broken Memories, Broken Bonds (November, 2009)
Facing Death in Solidarity and Hope (March, 2010)
Towards Passive Euthanasia (April, 2010)
Defending the Dignity of Those with Dementia (October, 2010)
Facing Terminal Illnesses Realistically (November, 2010)
Powerlessness, or the Hidden Power in Our Suffering? (May, 2012)
Talking Americans Down From the Assisted-Suicide Ledge (October, 2012)
A Higher Standard than for Cats and Dogs (December, 2015)
On Aging Gracefully (April, 2016)
To Be or Not to Be — Parsing the Implications of Suicide (January, 2018)
Contradictory Suicide Messaging (August, 2019)
Palliative Sedation While Approaching Death (September, 2019)
A Hundred Love Letters (February, 2020)
Spiritual Lessons from the Pandemic (May, 2020)
Too Much Morphine? (January, 2022)
Seeking the Spiritual Side of Dementia (October, 2022)
Suicidal Fears and Authentic Accompaniment (March, 2023)
The Most Serious Miscalculation of All? (May, 2024)
• Surrogacy
The Multiple Moral Problems of Surrogacy (October, 2016)
Securing Authentic Children’s Rights (June, 2019)
Surrogacy and Child Trafficking (February, 2024)
• Tattoos
Taboos and Tattoos (December, 2012)
• Test Tube Babies
(See: In Vitro Fertilization)
• Transgender
Discrimination and Human Genital Sexuality (March, 2014)
Are Womb Transplants Immoral? (December, 2014)
Changing My Body To “Match” My “Identity?" (July, 2015)
Sex in Accord with Reason (September, 2017)
Promethean Medical Temptations (July, 2018)
Sexual Orientation- Hope for Restoration and Healing with SOCE (October, 2018)
Nobody Gets Hurt? (April, 2019)
Challenging the Establishment on Childhood Gender Transitions (May 2021)
Suicidal Fears and Authentic Accompaniment (March, 2023)
Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and the Tragic Seduction of Our Daughters (June, 2023)
Catholic Hospitals and “Gender Reassignment” for Minors? (October, 2024)
• Tubal Ligation
(See: Sterilization)
• Universal Morality
Verbal Engineering & the Swaying of Public Conscience (February, 2009)
Thinking about Moral Absolutes (May, 2009)
Difficult Pregnancies, Precarious Choices, & the Absolute Value of Innocent Lives (July, 2010)
Clear Ethical Thinking & Relativism (January, 2011)
Black & White, or Gray? (April, 2012)
Universal Morality and the Natural Law (August, 2013)
Clearing the Air Around Marijuana Use (June, 2014)
Talking to Kids About Porn and Human Sexuality (August, 2016)
Leaving Our Values at the Door of the Strip Club (September, 2016)
It’s Not Wrong, If It Feels Right! (December, 2016)
How Does the Catholic Church Resolve New Bioethical Questions? (February, 2017)
The Smoke over Medical Marijuana (June, 2018)
Abortion Funding — Cutting off the Blood Supply (November, 2018)
“Exceptions” and the Undermining of the Moral Law. (February, 2019)
Contradictory Suicide Messaging (August, 2019)
Pushing Back Against Evil (October, 2019)
Medicine and a Sense of the Sacred (November, 2019)
The Foxes and the Henhouse (December, 2019)
Language — Veiling or Unveiling Moral Truth (June, 2020)
Challenging the Establishment on Childhood Gender Transitions (May 2021)
Dehumanizing One Another (February, 2022)
A Great Nation Begins to Come to Its Senses (April, 2022)
Young Women Giving Themselves Away For Nothing (January, 2023)
Setting a Moral Vision as Parents (April, 2023)
The Most Serious Miscalculation of All? (May, 2024)
• Uterine Transplants
(See: Womb Transplants)
• Vaccines & Vaccinations
The Morality of Vaccinating Our Children (August, 2005)
Vaccinating Our Children for Sexually Transmitted Diseases (November, 2011)
Accelerating Vaccine Development (April, 2020)
COVID-19 Vaccine Myths (August, 2020)
Is Mandating a COVID-19 Vaccine Ethical? (September, 2020)
Should I Get Vaccinated? (October, 2020)
Must Catholics Refuse a COVID-19 Vaccine Made With a Cell Line from an Abortion? (November, 2020)
Vaccines and Other Entanglements with Abortion (December, 2020)
Should We Take Whatever Vaccine is Offered? (February, 2021)
Countering Catholic Misinformation About Vaccines (March, 2021)
Vaccine Mandates and Catholic Colleges (April, 2021)
New Cures from Embryonic Stem Cells? (October, 2021)
• Vasectomy
(See: Sterilization)
• Vegetative State
(See: Persistent Vegetative State)
• Ventilators
What About Ventilators? (June, 2012)
Thinking Through the Rationing of Ventilators (March, 2020)
• Viagra
(see: Erectile Dysfunction)
• Voting & Ethics
Voting to Make a Difference (September, 2008)
The Morality and Wisdom of Incremental Legislation (May, 2013)
Clearing the Air Around Marijuana Use (June, 2014)
The Smoke over Medical Marijuana (June, 2018)
Abortion Funding — Cutting off the Blood Supply (November, 2018)
An Authentic Democracy (July, 2019)
• Womb Transplants
Are Womb Transplants Immoral? (December, 2014)
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