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Human dignity

Ethics

IS OURS a CULTURE of LIFE?

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 4 yearsFebruary 12, 2019 ago
Ethics

LETTING OUR LOVED ONES GO HOME to GOD

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 4 yearsOctober 28, 2018 ago
About Us

HEALTH CARE MINISTRY in the SPIRIT of SAINT DOMINIC

Saint Dominic is the Holy Founder of the Order of Preachers (the “Dominican” Order) that serves the parish community of St. Vincent Ferrer and St. Catherine of Siena on New York City’s Upper East Side and offers particular service to the health care community in that area and beyond through Read more…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsAugust 5, 2018 ago
Healthcare

THE IMPORTANCE of STORYTELLING in HEALTH CARE

In one of their “Sunday Review” sections, The New York Times published an article titled “Why Doctors Need Stories.” It was written by Peter D. Kramer, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University, whose focus in the article is on the advantages of including stories about the treatment of particular patients in Read more…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsJuly 29, 2018 ago
Ethics

THE ETHICS of BEGINNING-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART IV: KILLING for the PURPOSES of MEDICINE

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsJuly 22, 2018 ago
Ethics

THE ETHICS of BEGINNING-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART III: ABORTION in TRAUMATIC CIRCUMSTANCES

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsJuly 15, 2018 ago
Ethics

THE ETHICS of BEGINNING-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART II: THE WRONGFULNESS of DIRECT ABORTION

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsJuly 8, 2018 ago
Ethics

THE ETHICS of BEGINNING-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART I: THE BEGINNING of HUMAN LIFE

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsJuly 1, 2018 ago
Ethics

THE ETHICS of END-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART II: CHOOSING LIFE and ACCEPTING DEATH

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsFebruary 18, 2018 ago
Ethics

THE ETHICS of END-OF-LIFE HEALTH CARE, PART I: ORDINARY MEANS of PRESERVING LIFE

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsFebruary 11, 2018 ago
Ethics

LIFE is WORTH LIVING: REJECTING ASSISTED SUICIDE

“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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsJanuary 21, 2018 ago
Ethics

THE HUMANIZATION of HEALTH CARE

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsJanuary 14, 2018 ago
Ethics

FEEDING the SICK: NUTRITION and HYDRATION in HEALTH CARE

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsJanuary 7, 2018 ago
Faith

HOME for CHRISTMAS in the FAMILY of GOD

Everybody wants to be home for Christmas. Everybody wants to spend Christmas with family. But some people can’t be home or don’t have family. Some people are homeless or feel homeless, especially at Christmas time. Some people are sick and estranged from home at a hospital or nursing care facility. Read more…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsDecember 24, 2017 ago
Healthcare

THE DIGNITY of the HUMAN PERSON in HEALTH CARE: THE PATIENT as CHRIST

Like all human beings, patients receiving medical care can be identified with Jesus Christ by virtue of the Incarnation, the mystery of God becoming man.. This mystery is expressed by the angel Gabriel’s words to the Blessed Virgin Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of Read more…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsDecember 17, 2017 ago
Faith

CRIPPLED by ILLNESS; RUNNING to MEET the LORD

The patients I encounter in my health care ministry are not, for the most part, runners. Many of them can walk, others have hopes of walking or even running again, and some, sadly, must accept that their ambulatory days are behind them. For all these people, however, and for every Read more…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsDecember 3, 2017 ago
Healthcare

THE DIGNITY of the HUMAN PERSON in HEALTH CARE: the PATIENT as AGENT

We often use the word “patient” when speaking of men and women who are receiving medical care without giving much thought to what that word means. That is not necessarily a problem. The word “patient” is a helpful signifier in the context of health care. Everyone knows who is being Read more…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsNovember 19, 2017 ago
Ethics

The ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 5 yearsOctober 22, 2017 ago
Ethics

The RIGHT to LIFE: the RIGHT of a CHILD; not the RIGHT to a CHILD

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 6 yearsJune 18, 2017 ago
Ethics

HUMAN CONSCIENCE and PATIENT AUTONOMY

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 6 yearsApril 30, 2017 ago
Healthcare

PATIENTS and their FAMILIES

One of the saddest experiences I have as a hospital chaplain is ministering to patients who die alone. Thankfully, that is unusual. In the great majority of cases, the dying person is surrounded by family. Friends are often there too, but mostly family: the people who have been with that Read more…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 6 yearsJanuary 1, 2017 ago
Ethics

ETHICS as RESTORING the IMAGE of GOD

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…

By Fr. Jonah Pollock, 6 yearsOctober 30, 2016 ago
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