As the historic COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying worldwide and draconian emergency measures are being reinstituted in Europe and elsewhere, I see an urgent need to repeat a defense of the right of patients not to be forced to die alone in hospitals or nursing homes. The mission of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) has …
PATIENT ADVOCATES PUT COMPASSION INTO ACTION Visiting the sick is a work of mercy. Patient advocates manifest mercy by showing compassion to sick and suffering people. Compassion means “to suffer with” another, to put our kindly inclinations—which we are often tempted to resist—into action through readiness to assist. A person who accompanies a medically vulnerable …
PATIENT ADVOCATES ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED: PART II Read More »
Physical and cognitive disability should not mean one’s situation is considered “end of life,” yet too many persons who are not dying are described this way. Earlier this year, Oregon’s state legislature considered a bill that would have increased the number of medically vulnerable persons at risk of an untimely death. Oregon’s SB 494 would …
BASIC CARE, HUMAN DIGNITY, AND CARE FOR MEDICALLY VULNERABLE PERSONS Read More »
PATIENT ADVOCATES NURTURE HOPE I have served as a volunteer patient advocate for 35 years. The deepest kinds of suffering I encounter are profound unhappiness and loneliness, resulting in loss of hope. It is difficult for people who are intensely unhappy to believe that they will ever be happy again. That is when they desperately …
PATIENT ADVOCATES ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED: PART I Read More »
HAVE THE CONVERSATION Use your Voice to Keep the Church Doors Open! Hindsight is a beautiful thing. In March of 2020, religious leaders around the world started closing churches and stopping public worship due to the fear of spreading Covid-19. As a result, multitudes of people were unable to practice their faith – even the …
One of the most important tasks in bioethics is distinguishing between ordinary and extraordinary means when it comes to medical care. The reason this distinction is so vital is that Catholics have a moral obligation to receive ordinary care for themselves and give it to others. What is deemed to be extraordinary is morally optional; …
DISCERNING ORDINARY VS. EXTRAORDINARY MEANS IN CATHOLIC BIOETHICS Read More »
Healthcare advance directives are legal documents by which individuals express their wishes regarding medical treatment and/or appoint a trusted person to speak for them any time they are unable to make treatment decisions for themselves. Not all advance directives are equal. Many have been drafted by people who fail to comprehend the reverence, awe, and deep respect …
In assessing when there is a duty to preserve life, the Church distinguishes between ordinary and extraordinary means.[1] Ordinary means must be taken to preserve life, and extraordinary means can be morally refused.[2] It is, therefore, critical to properly characterize particular means of preserving human life as ordinary or extraordinary, that is, as morally obligatory …
When a healthcare provider recommends palliative care or hospice, patients and their families need guidance so they can make the most life-affirming decisions possible in their circumstances. The Task Force on Civil Rights in Health Care advises people to become informed and ask questions before electing a palliative care or hospice program. The goal of palliative …
Louis Brown’s recorded talk from the 2020 Legatus Business Leadership Institute Virtual Conference. This Digital Health Care Conference was originally live-streamed in October 2020. Louis is the Executive Director of Christ Medicus.