On June 6, the DHM hosted the first annual Thomistic Bioethics Colloquium: Towards a Thomistic Understanding of Death in the Clinical Setting. Human death, defined as the moment when the soul departs from the body, is a single event that no empiric approach can directly identify. Clinical determinations of death Read more
The Dominican Healthcare Ministry has published a short pamphlet, called Life is Changed, Not Ended, intended to help Catholics consider their eternal end and make adequate preparations for their own death. This publication distills the experience and knowledge of the Dominican Friars who work full time in the hospitals, where Read more
(This is a research paper. It is longer and more detailed than the “Reflections” on this page. Please enjoy.) Introduction In their article, “Artificial Nutrition and Hydration: The Evolution of Ethics, Evidence, and Policy,” Howard Brody, Laura D. Hermer, Larry D. Scott, L. Lee Grumbles, Julie E. Kutac, and Susan Read more
Every human life is uniquely precious, of inestimable dignity, and worthy of being valued and protected. That truth, and the ways in which it is both affirmed and denied in our Western culture, has recently been clarified for me in four different ways that I wish briefly to recount. The Read more
The Catholic Church opposes euthanasia, understood as the deliberate killing of a person in order to end his or her suffering. We profess that all human life in endowed with dignity and value, whether healthy or sick, productive or disabled. Life is God’s gift to us and is ours to Read more
We are once again considering the wrongfulness of direct abortion and, more generally, the deliberate killing of human beings in the early stages of their development. We will recall that the term “abortion” refers to the death of an unborn child in the womb of his or her mother and Read more
A direct abortion is an abortion that is deliberately chosen and is always morally wrong. It is morally wrong because it is a kind of murder, an instance of deliberately killing an innocent human being. Since it is an instance of murder, direct abortion is in violation of the natural Read more
Human life is a precious gift from Godwho made man and woman in His own image and likeness. The human being has the dignity of being a person, not just a something but a someone, by virtue of possessing a rational and spiritual soul. Human life, which begins the moment Read more
Human life is a precious gift from God. In its very first chapter, the Bible tells us, “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them” (Gen 1:27). Human beings are made in God’s image, which accounts for the surpassing dignity and value of human Read more
In concluding these reflections on organ and tissue transplantation, I hope to be able to provide some guidance to the ethical deliberations of potential organ and tissue donors and recipients as well as policy makers and clinicians: Potential Donors All of us are potential donors. That is to say, we Read more
When we think of organ and tissue transplantation, we first might think of the donation of fully developed human body parts like kidneys, hearts, lungs, or skin. There are, however, some forms of transplantation that only involve the donation of human cells and other forms that involve material that is, Read more
In order to ethically transplant vital organs from a consenting donor, it is necessary that the donor’s death be confirmed. This is the principle underlying the “dead donor rule,” requiring that donors of vital organs be confirmed dead before transplant. Were this rule not followed, the result would be transplantations Read more
Organ and tissue transplantation is a growing area of contemporary medical practice that raises a variety of ethical concerns. This article will consider transplantations from donors after bodily death, including the transplantation of vital organs such as heart, lung, and liver as well as transplantation of tissues such as skin, Read more
Organ and tissue transplantation is a growing area of contemporary medical practice that raises a variety of ethical concerns. This article will consider the transplantation of organs or tissue from living human donors, examine some of the ethical questions these practices raise, and draw conclusions from the tradition of the Read more
The right of an individual to follow his or her conscience has long been a matter of dispute in our society. In times of war, for example, men subject to military draft have claimed conscientious objection. Should they be permitted to excuse themselves on that basis? If so, what should Read more
When illness or injury threaten to end our lives or the lives of our loved ones, we may well find ourselves confronted with difficult decisions. Should we try this treatment or not? Should we try to resuscitate Mom? Should we withdraw life-support? How, in the specific situations of our lives, Read more
In our consideration of end-of-life health care, we seek to understand how we can determine which potentially life-sustaining measures are to be considered ordinary means of preserving life and which should be considered extraordinary means. From our previous posts, we know that the term “ordinary means” applies to safe, beneficial Read more
When someone is experiencing life-threatening illness or injury, ethical questions about the preservation of life often arise. What kinds of treatments are worth trying? Is it okay to refuse possible life-saving measures? When is enough enough? When considering these kinds of questions, the Church invites us to distinguish between “ordinary” Read more
I have set before you life and death . . . Choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). With these words, Moses exhorts God’s people to follow God’s law and thereby receive His life-giving blessings. We might, however, take the liberty of reapplying these words in our consideration of health care ethics, where they Read more
Human life is a precious gift from god. In its very first chapter, the Bible tells us, “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Human beings are made in God’s image, which accounts for the surpassing dignity and value of human Read more
“For me, it has always been clear: life is worth it only if you want it.” Thus states Carlos Framb in a short, autobiographical story about assisted suicide as told to Camila Segura. His story was published by The New York Times Magazine on October 18, 2015, under the title, Read more
Most, if not all, of the ethical problems in the world of health care come from a failure to grasp that health care as an interaction between human persons. Health care, as the name suggests, is the act of one person (or persons) caring for the health of another person Read more
Preservation of bodily life is among the most basic goals of health care. The means that are used to accomplish this goal can include a wide scope of medical acts, depending on the illness or injury that the patient presents. In addition to various medical means, however, preserving bodily life Read more
We are accustomed to evaluating people according to professional standards. “She’s a good doctor.” “He’s a good accountant.” “Their second baseman is terrible!” These kinds of statements are familiar to us. We understand what they mean because we understand that there are particular sets of standards to which people doing Read more
I have set before you life and death . . . choose life! The choice that Moses set before the Israelites as they prepared to pass into the Promised Land (Deut 30:19) is a choice that is set before us today in a variety of ways. The exhortation to choose Read more
Our society generally uses the term “reproductive rights” to refer to the options that should be made available to a woman insofar as she is a potential (or sometimes actual) mother. The Catholic Church teaches that mothers and fathers and children all have rights regarding the manner of their reproduction. Read more
Christian revelation tells us that seeking what is truly good — and seeking the one who is Truth and Goodness — is not just something we do, but something God does in us. It is only by the power of God’s grace, with which we must freely cooperate, that we Read more
That illnesses can now be diagnosed and treated when a child is still in the womb represents a significant advance in modern medicine. Some diagnoses can be achieved by testing the genetic make-up of an unborn child either in utero (in the womb) or in vitro (in a test tube). Read more
Conscience, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, is the act of the human intellect by which “we judge that something should be done or not done.”1 This judgment is to be based on our knowledge of what is right and wrong for us to do, knowledge that we acquire both from Read more
Proponents of physician-assisted suicide have used the term “death with dignity” to present their cause in a positive way. The Catholic Church uses the word “dignity” to articulate the exact opposite view about assisted suicide. According to the Church’s official teaching, “An act or omission which, of itself or by Read more
We have already considered how the ethics of the Christian gospel embrace both rigorous moral standards and extravagant forgiveness of sin. Let us now consider another both/and of gospel ethics: its moral precepts are both commandments and promises. The precepts of the gospel, like “Bless those who curse you” (Luke Read more
G. K. Chesterton, the early 20th century Christian apologist, wrote that, while “paganism declared that virtue was in a balance; Christianity declared it was in a conflict: the conflict of two passions apparently opposite. Of course they were not really inconsistent; but they were such that it was hard to Read more
To “cooperate with evil” sounds like a horrible thing to do—and it can be. But some cooperation with evil is inevitable and unavoidable for almost everyone. The reason for this is that human beings are inherently social creatures. We live with, interact with, and depend on one another, and so Read more
Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his great Summa Theologica, begins his treatment of ethics with the Christian understanding that human beings are created in the image of God. Following Saint John Damascene, he observes that human beings image God most especially through having intelligence and free will. Saint Thomas teaches that Read more
For human beings, doing good means choosing a good moral object for the sake of a good end. If a man chooses something morally bad as a means to achieving something morally good, his action is bad altogether. Likewise, if a man chooses something morally good as a means to Read more
Good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided. This is the first principle of ethical human action as articulated by Saint Thomas Aquinas, who relies on the classical wisdom of Aristotle and represents much of the Catholic tradition (Summa TheologiaeI-II, q. 94, a. 2). In Read more