Bishops Welcome Ruling Against Embryonic Stem Cell Funding

WASHINGTON - Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, welcomed the federal court injunction against the Obama administration’s funding of human embryonic stem cell research, calling the ruling a “victory for common sense and sound medical ethics.” He said this ruling also vindicates the bishops’ reading of the Dickey amendment, the amendment approved by Congress since 1996, which prevents federal funding of research in which human embryos are harmed or destroyed.

“I hope this court decision will encourage our government to renew and expand its commitment to ethically sound avenues of stem cell research,” Cardinal DiNardo added. “These avenues are showing far more promise than destructive human embryo research in serving the needs of suffering patients.”

Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment

by Gerald D. Coleman, S.S.
Vice President, Corporate Ethics, Daughters of Charity Health System

Lisa Gasbarre Black is General Counsel to Catholic Charities Health and Human Services in the Diocese of Cleveland. In the recent edition of Ethics and Medics published by the National Catholic Bioethics Center, Black is highly critical of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) that went into effect on January 1, 2009 in California (and at varied times in other States).

Preaching and Promoting the Gospel of Life

By Rev. Richard Benson, C.M.

Does an embryo have a soul? Isn't society justified in putting to death a criminal that has committed a capital crime? Why should taxpayers have to support health care and schooling for undocumented children? Why didn't Pope John Paul II agree to call President Bush's invasion of Iraq a "just war"? When did health care become a "right"?

Catholic Decree on Comatose Patients

by Gerald D. Coleman, S.S,
Vice President, Corporate Ethics, Daughters of Charity Health System

On Sunday, January 3rd, the San Francisco Chronicle published an article entitled "Catholic decree on comatose patients." The writer relied heavily on the website opinions of Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, a leading advocate of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. The Chronicle article and the Lee blogs have received a good deal of national attention.

These writers are addressing the 2009 revisions to Part Five and Directive 58 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services (ERDs). The last revision of these Directives was made in 2001. At that time, the Vatican had not addressed the morality of providing medically-assisted nutrition and hydration (MANH) to patients in a vegetative state (PVS).

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