The Global Reach of the NCBC: Dr. Haas Reflects

Over the course of one month’s time NCBC President, Dr. John Haas, had two trips to Rome for tasks associated with his Vatican appointments. Between February and March, Dr. Haas attended the annual meeting and assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life and a special plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers.

Amid the whirlwind of activity that has surrounded the The National Catholic Bioethics Center recently, Dr. Haas has had some time to collect his thoughts and recollections of his travels. 

What follows is Dr. Haas’ report of those two trips to Rome:

The Pontifical Academy for Life

The Pontifical Academy for Life had its annual assembly and members’ meeting February 20th and 21st at the Augustinian College by St. Peter’s Square. Customarily the meetings take place in the Synod Hall of Paul VI but this year a consistory was taking place at the same time and the Cardinals of the Church supplanted us! The day before the opening of the Assembly I attended the meeting of the Directive Council which discussed possible themes for future assemblies, reviewed possible candidates, and discussed other business of the Academy.


Because of the Consistory and the creation of new Cardinals, the Holy Father was unable to receive the members of the Academy in a private audience as has been customary. However, the members of the Academy were invited to be seated with him at the time of his public Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s Square.

 

                                                             Public audience with Pope Francis

The theme this year was “Aging and Disability”, an increasing problem in Europe and North America with the attendant threats to human dignity and increased calls for physician-assisted-suicide or even euthanasia. As a member of the Directive Council of the Academy (thanks to Pope Benedict), I presided over one of the initial sessions of the assembly. Board Member and neurosurgeon Dr. Robert Buchanan gave an excellent presentation entitled: “Disabilities through Cognitive Impairment and Dementia”.


It was quite a festive occasion this year since we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Academy. The meetings began with mass celebrated at the tomb of St. John Paul II who established the Academy. The principal celebrant was Cardinal Willem Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht, president of the Dutch Bishops’ Conference, and a member of the Academy.  

   

                                                  Mass in front of the Holy Remains of John Paul II

The Workshop concluded with a banquet for Academy members amidst classical statuary and friezes in the Vatican Museum. 

 

I also serve on the board of the International Federation of Bioethics Centers and Institutes of Personalist Inspiration (i.e., the thought of John Paul II!) and had a meeting for it as well. This past year we had our program in Havana, Cuba with a theme of health care and social justice.

The Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers

Approximately every five years the Consultors and Members of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers are summoned to Rome. The Plenary Session was opened with a mass for the participants by the Cardinal Secretary of State who had communicated the consent of Pope Francis that the Plenary Session take place. It was the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Council by St. John Paul II. (The Pope had initially formed the Pontifical Academy for Life through the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. Among Vatican offices, a Council has a higher standing than an Academy.)


At the first meeting of Members and Consultors, there were reports on the activities of the Council since it founding, particularly concerning the observances of the World Day of the Sick on February 11, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. After our first session participants were taken to the Clementine Hall in the Apostolic Palace for a private audience with the Holy Father. He thanked us for our work and praised the work of all Catholic health care workers around the world in their service to the sick and the suffering. (When I met him I told him that I brought greetings from The National Catholic Bioethics Center and from my family, all nine children and spouses and twenty-seven grandchildren at which he gave me a “thumbs-up” which the photographer caught!)

                           The members of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers sit with Francis.

  Archbishop Zimowski Addresses Pope Francis and the Council

                                                                 Dr. Haas with Pope Francis

 

                                                                     The Papal 'Thumbs Up'!

On the second day of the Plenary Session, March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, mass was offered by the President of the Council, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, in the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia just off the Via Conciliazione.

 

                                                             Mass with Archbishop Zimowski

Following mass and a light breakfast, our work continued. In 1995 the Council had issued its Charter for Health Care Workers under Cardinal Angelini. It has been common knowledge that it was being revised, and there were reports on the revisions taking place.


While in Rome, I took advantage of the occasion to meet with the President, Chancellor and Coordinating Secretary of the Pontifical Academy for Life even though our own assembly had taken place a mere month before. One of the problems with the visits to Rome during conferences and assemblies is that the schedules are so full it is difficult to address other projects with which one is involved. I then had a meeting the day after the Plenary Session with the President, Secretary and Sub-Secretary of the Council. One of the subjects discussed was the International Association of Health Care Institutions. Its President is Dr. Anthony Tersigni who serves on our board and is the President/CEO of Ascension Health.


There was also a meeting at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which has recently sent to the Bishops of the United States guidelines for collaborative ventures with non-Catholic health care institutions. It was also a joy and privilege to be able to have lunch with Cardinal Elio Sgreccia, former President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, founder of the Bioethics Institute at the Gimelli Hospital, and author of Personalist Bioethics which the Center has translated and published. While in Rome, I also take advantage of the opportunity to invite a group of moral theologians out to dinner so I can keep up with developments in the work and thinking taking place in academic circles there.

 

                                                            Meeting with Cardinal Sgreccia

It was a very full and productive week. However, as I later reflected on it, I saw much of supernatural significance. I would like to share some reflections with the hope I am not being overly pietistic.


We all know that we are facing the gravest governmental threat to the practice of our religion perhaps in the history of our Republic. The HHS Mandate would have all employers cover contraception, sterilization, and abortifacient drugs and devices in the health insurance provided their employees, despite the strong religious and moral objections of many employers. It is a scientific fact that a new human life comes into existence at the moment of conception and that intra-uterine devices and certain “morning after pills” can prevent a new, tiny human being from implanting in the womb. This is a particularly sobering thought when one considers that our redemption began at the moment the Blessed Virgin conceived the Christ Child in her womb at the annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel.


This fact was very much on my mind as Archbishop Zymowski celebrated mass on the Feast of the Annunciation in Santo Spirito in Sassia. I was especially aware that it was on that very day that the Supreme Court was hearing oral arguments on the legal challenges to the HHS Mandate brought by those with strong moral objections. Everything is in God’s Providence, I thought, even the day on which the Justices would hear the case! I prayed intensely for those who would be arguing the moral case and for the Justices that they might judge rightly. Also, I thought the Archbishop’s homily was a moving and a providential reflection on what was actually happening in our own country. I attach it for your edification, HERE.


It just so happened that I was also in Rome on the occasion of the visit of President Obama with the Holy Father on Thursday of that week, March 27. In fact, I stood on the Via Conciliazione as the President’s motorcade went speeding and screaming by. I think I counted 17 vehicles, not to mention the squadrons of motorcycles. I thought of this display of wealth and power on the way to visit a man who has called us to embrace the poor and who himself lived a life of poverty. Nonetheless, I prayed for the President as he sped by and for the Pope who waited to receive him.


While the meeting was taking place I obviously could not help but reflect on the encounter between President Obama and Pope Benedict in July 2009. At that time Pope Benedict had presented the President with a copy of the Vatican Instruction Dignitas Personae, which defended the life of every human being from the moment of conception. It also condemned interventions that would prevent an embryo from implanting in the uterus, the very issue argued before the Supreme Court earlier in the week.


Two world leaders met face to face that day, one a courageous champion of a Culture of Life and the other representing forces who have shaped a Culture of Death. Pope Francis had repeatedly condemned abortion that “kills children that will never see the light of day”. I thought of St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” For our part, none of us play the role of world leaders! But we do nonetheless have our essential roles in the Church and in the world. As our contribution to the struggle, we are called to individual holiness and to fidelity to the tasks with which God has entrusted us in our little part of the world, wherever it may be.


Once again, the Eternal City was the locus of great worldly and spiritual struggles. And we, through our involvement with The National Catholic Bioethics Center and in our own way, were party to it that week.

TONIGHT -- NCBC Ethicists on the Airwaves

It has been confirmed that NCBC ethicists Dr. Marie Hilliard, Director of Public Policy, and Father Tadeuz Pacholczyk, Director of Education, will each be appearing LIVE in separate radio interviews this evening.

Dr. Hilliard will be speaking on contraception in the HHS mandate and its place in the the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Hilliard will be on the program What the World Needs Now with Kathleen McCarthy. The interview will be broadcast by the In His Sign Network at 5 P.M., Eastern, tonight.

After hearing Dr. Hilliard, you can tune in to Relevant Radio's program A Closer Look with Sheila Liaugminas to listen to Father Tad.

Father will be interviewed in a segment of the show entitled: Under the Microscope: A Closer Look at Medical Bioethics which will air tonight at 6:30 P.M., Eastern. Father will discuss a number of issues in bioethics, from the Church's teaching on brain death, to IVF.

To listen to Dr. Hilliard's interview, visit the In His Sign Network's website and load the appropriate media player, HERE

To hear Father Tad, head to the Relevant Radio online media player, HERE

Enjoy!

UPDATE -- Radio Debate on Brain Death Now Available Online

If you missed last night's spirited debate between NCBC President, Dr. John Haas, and Paul Byrne, M.D., never fear! Their discussion on the topic of brain death is now available on the website of the Kresta in the Afternoon show on Ave Maria Radio's website. To stream the archived version of the program, please click HERE, scroll to the media player labelled "January 8, 2014 Hour 2," click play and (after a brief ad from Ave Maria), scroll to minute 22:25.


Happy listening!

Where in the World is Dr. Haas? -- The Global Reach of the NCBC: Collaboration with Catholic Health Care in Korea

Last month, NCBC President, Dr. John Haas, and his wife Martha had the pleasure to travel to Korea for the marriage of their son Joseph to a Korean woman. Dr. Haas had met participants from Korea in the NCBC National Catholic Certification Program in Bioethics and so contacted them before his departure. He was also aware of the fact that the Korean Catholic Bioethics Institute in Seoul had translated two publications of the NCBC into Korean.

Dr. and Mrs. Haas landed in Seoul toward the end of November and were picked up at their hotel the following day by one of the former certification students, a Korean physician, Dr. Seon-Hee Yim, who goes by the nick-name of Sunny, and taken to St. Mary’s Hospital as well as the medical school and the bioethics center, all on the campus of the Catholic University of Korea. Dr. Sunny is an epidemiologist and is now involved in molecular genetics and genetic counseling. She spent time at Oxford so her English was excellent.


Dr. Haas recounted the details of the rest of his his journey below:

We first had a traditional Korean lunch near the hospital with several administrators, physicians, and other health care professionals. We were joined by Father Jae-Woo Jung (Father Sebastian) who has his doctorate from the Regina Apostolorum in Rome. I had actually encountered him several times in Rome at assemblies of the Pontifical Academy for Life.



From Left: Father Sebastian, director of the bioethics institute at Saint Mary's;
Dr. Sunny, the epidemiologist and genetic counselor; Dr. Lucy, who has her doctorate in Philosphy
from The Catholic University of America and works at the bioethics institute;
and Dr.Young, an oncologist and one of those who oversaw the building of the new
St. Mary’s Facility; Dr. Young is also a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life


The current facilities of Saint Mary's Hospital were completed in 2002 and were built for $1 billon! It is the largest Catholic hospital in the world with 1,325 beds. St. Mary’s Hospital performed the first kidney transplant, did the first bone marrow transplant, had the first hospice in Korea which has become a model for the country, and oversees extensive drug trials. Altogether it would constitute what we would call a health care system with 8 hospitals around the country. We were struck by the fact that a funeral home was part of the hospital complex. I suspect U.S. hospitals would be nervous about incorporating a funeral home into their buildings!

St. Mary’s Hospital was actually started by lay persons rather than religious as is the tradition in this country. It was built in 1936 during the Japanese occupation. I was fascinated to learn that it was also laity who brought the Catholic Church to Korea. In the 18th Century a group of scholars went to China to enhance their scholarship. While there they encountered the Church, converted and brought it back to Korea. The first Korean baptism actually occurred in China in 1784, and their leader, who took the baptism name of Peter, returned their country with zeal for the Faith. They then set about trying to find priests in Europe who would come to minister to them! Priests finally arrived from France in 1836. The first Korean priest, St. Andrew Kim, was ordained in 1845 – and martyred in 1846!



The new Saint Mary's Hospital in Seoul, Korea


One of those giving the tour was Dr. Young-Seon Hong, an oncologist who oversaw the building of the new facility and then went back to his clinical work after its completion. St. Mary’s has the most extensive bone marrow transplant program in the country. Also with us on the tour was a Sister Regina (Dr. Hyen Oh La) from a Korean religious order which has Our Lady of Perpetual Help as their patroness. She has a Ph.D. in pharmacology and oversees the hospital pharmacy and a very robust drug trial program with 1500 protocols underway. They add about 300 new protocols a year.

The Archdiocese of Seoul averages 30 ordinations to the priesthood a year! The Church there is growing robustly. The country is roughly 30% Christian, 10% of whom are Catholic. The current president of Korea is a woman and a Catholic. The Catholic Church apparently has very good reputation in Korea because of the strong leadership of the laity and because the priests are very well educated, humble, and known for their kindness. The Church was also a major force for democracy in the country and has been very involved in social welfare programs, St. Mary’s Hospital being a prime example! The Church has grown 70% in the last ten years and has 15 dioceses.

The hospital has a vast atrium and once a year they have a great gathering of hospital employees from health care professionals to service staff for mass baptisms and confirmations. Friends and relatives are on the balconies overlooking the atrium to take part in the event. It is very moving. This truly is Catholic health care as a powerful force for the evangelization of culture! When Dr. Choi took us to the principal chapel (there are several throughout the buildings), he said it was the “cathedral of the hospital”. There is a large statue of Our Lady of Lourdes with water running down the black wall behind her. I commented that the NCBC was formally consecrated to Our Lady of Lourdes, another spiritual link between the NCBC and the hospital.

There is a children’s hospital within the entire complex where the young patients have their education continued while they are there, with the credits accepted by the school systems. We witnessed a delightful music class with children bald from probable chemotherapy.

The hospital has an executive floor for wealthy individuals, government officials and ambassadors posted in Seoul. There are apartments of several rooms where the family members can stay and private elevators which take patients to their respective suites directly from the garage. There is office equipment so they can continue to run the enterprise (or the government) from their suite. Later, there was a visit to a large board room for the hospital which can also be used for board meetings for businesses or even cabinet meetings for members of the government. Such accommodations are, of course paid, for by the individuals and not from insurance.

In Korea, the national health insurance plan pays 60% of the costs while the patients pay 40% for which they can buy insurance. If it is a “catastrophic” illness, the government pays 95%. Abortion is illegal in Korea except in cases of rape, incest and threat to the life of the mother, but St. Mary’s will not perform those or any so-called therapeutic abortions.

The NCBC considers itself privileged to be able to collaborate with St. Mary’s Hospital and the Catholic Bioethics Institute of Korea and is humbled by such an impressive example of health care professionalism and by such a moving witness to the Catholic Faith.

Dr. Haas Hits NPR Again, Talks Pope Francis

After his recent defense of both the USCCB and the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, Dr. Haas returned to the radio and to NPR's Diane Rehm show last week to participate in a panel discussion on Pope Francis. The discussion on His Holiness was excellent and enlightening and it served as an altogether pleasant foil to the undeniably strained discussions from the weeks before. Dr. Haas was able to make several good points throughout the interview and his opinions on Pope Francis provided a forthright and thought-provoking look into the actions - and related perceptions - of our Supreme Pontiff.

You can stream Dr. Haas's full discussion of Pope Francis through the Diane Rehm Show's media player, HERE.

The NCBC is Honored by a Visit from the Bishop of Lourdes, France

The NCBC was honored yesterday by a surprise visit from his Excellency Nicolas Brouwet, Bishop of Lourdes France!

The Bishop was visiting Philadelphia as part of his tour of several U.S. historic sites dedicated to Lourdes or Our Lady of Lourdes.

Why Philadelphia, why the NCBC, you ask?

The National Catholic Bioethics Center  has its office in a beautiful building in the historic neighborhood of Overbrook Farms in Philadelphia:

The NCBC Offices at the Katharine Drexel House

The Overbrook neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places and, fascinatingly, was the first 'planned community' built along the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. A keystone of the project plan was the idea that the neighborhood be built around central institutions important to the community, namely, churches. As a result, the now historic Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes was built in Philadelphia, just a stones-throw from where the NCBC offices would come to be.

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Philadelphia, PA
Photo Courtesy of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish

The Bishop of Lourdes visited Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and was received on Monday by parishioners at a reception hosted by the Order of Malta, an Order of which NCBC President, Dr. John Haas and NCBC Director of Public Policy, Dr. Marie Hilliard are members. After the reception Dr. Haas invited Bishop Brouwet to stop briefly at the Center. His Excellency was happy to oblige and no sooner had he agreed than he was driven up to the NCBC to meet with us.

The Bishop's visit to the NCBC was as felicitous as it was exciting, for it served as a fitting reminder that the NCBC and its mission (a mission tied, ultimately, to healing and care) has long been consecrated to Our Lady of Lourdes. The NCBC staff gathered with the Bishop for a photo, and then prayed the NCBC's consecration prayer together.

Gathering for prayer

The NCBC Consecration Prayer

The NCBC Staff with The Most Reverend Nicolas Brouwet, Bishop of Lourdes

The Bishop was a kind and soft-spoken man. He asked about our building (which suffered water damage last month) and hoped our recovery would go smoothly. He was well aware of the disasters water can cause, as the Shrine of our Lady and the whole diocese of Lourdes have been working hard to recover from the European floods of last year.


The NCBC was grateful to receive such a guest!

Please pray for the NCBC and for Bishop Brouwet's travels this month!

Where in the World is Doctor Haas?

August was for me, personally, a month of rest.  First, family and friends headed to the South Tyrolean Alps for some serious mountain hiking and climbing.  I then led a group around southern Germany on a program I organized called “Benedict’s Bavaria”.  We visited the beautiful villages, farmlands, monasteries, lakes and Bavarian Alps associated with the life of Josef Ratzinger, Pope Emeritus Benedict.  It was a wonderfully refreshing and spiritually uplifting two weeks. 

However, all the issues with which the Center has been so engaged were waiting for me upon my return!  But I was able to take them on refreshed and renewed!  And of course, the faithful staff who stayed behind continued to advance the mission to which the Center is so committed.

After returning from vacation, I left for two receptions in Kentucky which were organized on behalf of the Center. The Most Reverend Joseph Kurtz, Archbishop of Louisville, serves on the board of the NCBC and helped prepare the event. He graciously arranged for me to travel to Kentucky to inform health care professionals of the work of The National Catholic Bioethics Center.  On Thursday, August 9, the Most Reverend Ronald Gainer, Bishop of Lexington, welcomed me to a reception held at the Catholic Center in his diocese. The reception was attended by physicians, nurses, hospital administrators and those involved in the pro-life movement.  

The following day, I drove over to Louisville for a reception at the residence of Archbishop Kurtz.

 
Most Reverend Joseph E. Kurtz, D.D.
Archbishop of Louisville and Dr. Haas's gracious host.

There were approximately 40 individuals at each reception and the Center was able to enlist a number of new individual and institutional members.  These opportunities are very important for advancing the work of the Center and letting Catholics and others know of the resources that are available through the Center to assist in the pro-life struggle!

If you would like to further support our work and help increase the availability of the Center's tremendous resources, please consider making a donation to the NCBC.

Please pray for me as I continue in my travels throughout the Fall and Winter.

May God bless you all!

Dr. John M. Haas

President

The National Catholic Bioethics Center

THIS WEEKEND: NCBC Ethicist to Speak on Responding to the HHS Mandates

For the past several months, NCBC Staff Ethicist, John A. DiCamillo has been representing the NCBC while sitting as a member of the Respect Life Leadership Council of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, which is organized and run by Archdiocesan Office for Life and Family. As part of his active participation with the Archdiocese, John will be presenting at the Pro-Life Summit hosted by the Office for Life and Family this Saturday, July 20th. John will be presenting on the HHS mandate and the ways Catholic individuals and for-profit employers can respond to the unjust legislation.

John will be part of a series of brief presentations occurring that day. The event will be hosted at the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Pastoral Center and will be open to the public. The event will be preceded by Mass with Archbishop Chaput at 9:00 A.M. in the Cathedral.

  

For more details, see the flyer for the event HERE.

To view a schedule and the full list of Saturday's talks, click HERE 

If you cannot attend the talks, never fear! You should be able to tune in to local radio stations WISP 1570 and WCOJ 1420 at 10:00 A.M. to hear live updates on the proceedings.

NCBC Staff Ethicist, John DiCamillo

Thank you for all your hard work, John!

The NCBC Helps Organize Bioethics Conference in Cuba

The National Catholic Bioethics Center helped to organize, fund and participate in a Catholic bioethics conference in Havana, Cuba on May 17th and 18th. NCBC President,  Dr. John Haas, serves on the board of the International Federation of Bioethics Centers and Institutes of Personalist Inspiration (FIBIP) founded by Cardinal Elio Sgreccia.  The Cuban conference was organized under the sponsorship of FIBIP in collaboration with the Pope John Paul Bioethics Center in Havana under the leadership of Dr. Renee Zamora.  The Center raised $25,000 to help underwrite the costs of the conference and Dr. Haas prepared a paper entitled: The Common Good, Pragmatism, and Contemporary Bioethics which was translated into Spanish for his delivery by Father Alfred Cioffi, a Senior Fellow at The National Catholic Bioethics Center.

You can read a copy of Dr. Haas's paper, HERE.

A leér en Español, tecleo AQUI.

Read it Before it's Printed! - Dr. Marie Hilliard Talks Surrogacy With OSV

The NCBC's Director of Bioethics and Public Policy, Dr. Marie Hilliard, recently spoke to Our Sunday Visitor about the ethical issues surrounding surrogate motherhood. 

Dr. Marie Hilliard

This Interview will be printed in the May 26th Edition of the weekly news publication Our Sunday Visitor; be sure to pick up a copy!

Below is an excerpt of the interview. For the full interview, click HERE. To read more news, click HERE

Our Sunday Visitor: Please discuss the ethical-moral issues of surrogate motherhood first, and then the peripheral issues such as the psychological and legal. 

Marie Hilliard: If you look at the ethical, moral and legal issues, they are not separate. What the Church teaches is based on what we call natural, moral law: that we can know the good by what we can know by reason. We do not have a distinction between how the good should be expressed in the public arena and what is the good in terms of the moral arena. My mother had a great saying about her version of what Paul, in Romans 2:15, has told us about how certain things are written on the hearts of women and men and can be known by reason: “Sanctity is sanity.” 

OSV: What does Church teaching say about surrogate motherhood? 

Hilliard: The Church has such great scholarship on this and other issues. For example, natural moral law, as it pertains to assisted reproductive technologies, is extremely well addressed in the document Donum Vitae (“The Gift of Life”) from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1987). In 2008, the same congregation issued further instruction on such matters in Dignitas Personae. Such documents are an invaluable resource to couples struggling with infertility.

The Church teaches that the child should be conceived as an act of love in the fruitfulness of a marriage. Further, the child has a right to be conceived through that natural act of love that demonstrates the ultimate source of love — the Creator who establishes the laws of nature pertaining to how human life is to be engendered and life is to be lived.

Parents don’t produce: They engender new life through an act of love, which is a sacred act; and they are called, as responsible parents, to love and raise that child. For this reason, we really can’t separate the psychological from the legal, the moral, the physical and the spiritual. The child has every right to be engendered through that natural act of love, and the child actually becomes the fruitfulness of the love of the parents. That triune relationship between the mom, the dad and the Creator is fractured with a surrogate pregnancy.

Click HERE to read more

For those interested, the OSV article included some excellent excerpts from the Catechism on this subject. Enjoy! Have a blessed and thankful Memorial Day.

Church Teaching on Surrogacy

Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Techniques that entail the dissociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child’s right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses’ ‘right to become a father and a mother only through each other’” (No. 2376). “A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The ‘supreme gift of marriage’ is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged ‘right to a child’ would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right ‘to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents,’ and ‘the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception’” (No. 2378). Donum Vitae, the 1987 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation: “[Surrogate motherhood] is contrary to the unity of marriage and to the dignity of the procreation of the human person. Surrogate motherhood represents an objective failure to meet the obligations of maternal love, of conjugal fidelity and of responsible motherhood; it offends the dignity and the right of the child to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up by his own parents; it sets up, to the detriment of families, a division between the physical, psychological and moral elements which constitute those families” (No. II-A-3). Dignitas Personae, the 2008 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Instruction on Certain Bioethical Questions: “With regard to the treatment of infertility, new medical techniques must respect three fundamental goods: a) the right to life and to physical integrity of every human being from conception to natural death; b) the unity of marriage, which means reciprocal respect for the right within marriage to become a father or mother only together with the other spouse; c) the specifically human values of sexuality which require ‘that the procreation of a human person be brought about as the fruit of the conjugal act specific to the love between spouses’” (No. 12).

NCBC Ethicist On The Radio!

Our director of Education, Father Tad, also spoke about the 'controversy' that arose in Germany on Ave Maria Radio. Take a moment to listen to Father Tad's explanation, HERE, by opening the link and scrolling to minute 17:00.

Father Tad will also be on The Catholic Answer radio show TONIGHT from around 7 PM to 8 PM. The show will be a completely call-in episode, so listen or even call in to speak to a real live NCBC ethicist!

You can read more about tonight's segment, "Bioethics for the Rest of Us" HERE and you will be able stream the show live HERE tonight, beginning at 6PM.

NCBC Ethicist on Live Television!

The National Catholic Bioethics Center's Director of Public Policy, Dr. Marie Hilliard, made a brilliant appearance on live Television this week. On Thursday, January 30th, Marie met with EWTN's Father Mitch Pacwa, SJ and discussed the multifarious aspects of bioethics and the role of bioethics in the Catholic Church, in politics, and in everyday life. Dr. Hilliard elaborated on The NCBC's role in implementing Catholic Bioethics in the public sphere, and even provided live consultation to callers on the show.

See this amazing interview on the EWTN Live website, here.

I will be meeting with Marie next week; she will be recounting all the details of her numerous public appearances this month and Dr. Hilliard will most certainly expound on all she and The National Catholic Bioethics Center have been doing recently as they work to improve healthcare and protect the dignity of the Human Person in our world today.

To learn more about The NCBC's influence of Public Policy, click here.

If you watched the interview and feel compelled to donate to The NCBC's worthy cause, click here.

To contact The NCBC for consultative services, please click here.

If you missed Dr. Hilliard's interview and want to record and view it on your home television, Marie's EWTN appearance will air again Sunday, February 3rd, at 4:00 AM EST.

Meet an NCBC Ethicist!

Today's post is an interview with an Ethicist at The NCBC. It marks the first of what I hope will become our "Meet an Ethicist" serial here on NCBCmedia. I hope you enjoy! Click Read More to see my conversation with Fr. Pau Agulles.