NCBC in the News...Again!

It looks as though Christmas has come early here at The NCBC! Right on the heels of a recent victory, the National Catholic Bioethics Center read the recent court documents reporting a victory for Belmont Abbey and and Wheaton Colleges. As reported by The Becket Fund, the ruling protects the interests of religiously affiliated Colleges and Universities and, as General Counsel of the Becket Fund Kyle Duncan says:

“This is a win not just for Belmont Abbey and Wheaton, but for all religious non-profits challenging the mandate...The government has now been forced to promise that it will never enforce the current mandate against religious employers like Wheaton and Belmont Abbey and a federal appellate court will hold the government to its word.”

• www.becketfund.org  

The NCBC again signed on to an Amicus Curiae (friend-of-the-court) brief in this Federal Appeals Case and they provided invaluable information to the case. The Center stood proudly as one of: 

"Six national organizations whose members include physicians, bioethicists, and other healthcare professionals who have a profound interest in defending the sanctity of human life in their roles as healthcare providers, medical experts, and consumers. Amici are sensitive to healthcare disparities and are supportive of a variety of public, private, and charitable efforts that address health care affordability and accessibility. However, Amici deeply oppose the requirement imposed by the Appellees on nearly all private insurance plans to cover drugs and devices with life-ending mechanisms of action. This requirement violates Appellants’ sincerely held religious beliefs and freedom of conscience."

• Amicus Curiae Brief in Support of Appellants and Reversal of the Lower Court

 It is important to note that The Center, as well as the other interested parties named in the document, express their deep reservations regarding the institutional infringements of the HHS mandate while upholding their unequivocal support of the moral and ethical means necessary to mitigate and end the disparities in healthcare reception. The National Catholic Bioethics Center desires to improve the spiritual and physical existence of humanity through the syntheses of Faith and Reason, of morals and ethics. The NCBC supports opposition to these mandates and any infringement upon the individual moral conscience; not because of callous ignorance of the needs of humanity, but because of the belief that this is simply not the way to ameliorate the problems at hand. We hope that the U.S. Government will not continue to stall the attempts to gain transparency and finality regarding these problems. We hope that this victory and others like it will show the heartfelt concern, not intransigence, of The NCBC and other interested parties in America. 

Let us pray for continued clarity regarding these issues as The National Catholic Bioethics Center pursues the best and most effective means of bringing true Charity to healthcare and the world.

And finally, a sincere congratulations to our fellow Amici Curiae in this case, to the Becket Fund, and to Belmont Abbey and Wheaton College!