NATIONAL REVIEW: DR. JOSEPH MEANEY ON COVID VACCINES AND FETAL CELL LINES

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National Review interviewed Dr. Joseph Meaney, Executive Director of the National Catholic Bioethics Center and Health Care Civil Rights Task Force member, about the controversy over the COVID-19 vaccine, including the possible use of aborted fetal cells in testing. Dr. Meaney encourages people “to consider all of the ethical factors at play so that they …

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DEFENDING THE FUNDAMENTAL DIGNITY AND HEALTH CARE CIVIL RIGHTS OF ALL

1 Comment / Health Care Civil Rights, Position Papers / By

For Immediate ReleaseWashington, D.C.,  November 19, 2020             The member organizations of the Health Care Civil Rights Task Force are publishing this statement to protect the health, dignity, civil rights, and religious freedoms of patients and families during this COVID-19 public health crisis and beyond. Our cherished human and civil rights must be protected to save …

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PATIENT ADVOCATES ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED: PART II

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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 …

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BASIC CARE, HUMAN DIGNITY, AND CARE FOR MEDICALLY VULNERABLE PERSONS

1 Comment / Denial of Life-Sustaining Care, Patient Advocacy / By

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 …

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PATIENT ADVOCATES ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED: PART I

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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 …

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DISCERNING ORDINARY VS. EXTRAORDINARY MEANS IN CATHOLIC BIOETHICS

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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; …

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HEALTHCARE ADVANCE DIRECTIVES

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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 …

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