WATCH: Father Tad Pacholczyk Live TV Interview -- March for Life Special

NCBC Ethicist and Director of Education, Father Tad Pacholczyk, made a special appearance on the annual March for Life Episode of EWTN's The World Over with Raymond Arroyo. Father Tad spoke at length with Raymond about abortion and also covered other topics in bioethics including the importance of well-ordered human sexuality, surrogacy, and even the Pope's 'rabbit' comments!

Be sure to watch the video of the live interview, HERE

BREAKING -- NCBC Gives Official Comment on Physician Assisted Suicide in Light of The Brittany Maynard Case

Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Death of Brittany Maynard

Brittany Maynard, who was told by doctors that she had only six months to live after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, ended her life last week on November 1, a date she had selected ahead of time. The 29-year-old took a fatal dose of barbiturates, prescribed by her doctor, at her home in Portland, Oregon, surrounded by her husband and other members of her family.


Today, The National Catholic Bioethics Center officially expressed its: "[S]adness and regret over the untimely close of the life of such a vigorous young woman. Her decision to end her life by self-inflicted means reminds us of the tragic reality of suicide and the injustice of laws encouraging physician-assisted suicide..."



Please read the full NCBC commentary, HERE.

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!

BREAKING -- The NCBC Releases Updated Assessment of the Health and Human Services Mandate

Since October 1, 2013, the federal and state-subsidized health insurance exchanges called for by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) have been open for enrollment. In August 2012, the NCBC published a moral analysis of the options for non-exempt employers facing decisions about health insurance for their employees in light of the regulations established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).


In light of the inundating streams of (sometimes conflicting) information that come to the public regarding the manner in which the mandates are being implemented, and in light what the mandates will entail for Catholic Americans, The NCBC is pleased to announce the release of an updated assessment of the HHS Mandate. Our new publication, which will appear officially in the February edition of the monthly bulletin Ethics and Medics, revises the "previous moral analysis of the HHS mandate" published in August.

The new analysis offers:

"Additional relevant considerations to assist in understanding how employers and [now] individuals may decide, through health care exchanges or private plans, to provisionally purchase health insurance coverage for themselves and/or their employees without illicitly cooperating in evil. We also discuss how employers and individuals must consider a number of important moral and practical concerns as the exchanges become available, including provisions for coverage of direct abortion, uncertainties surrounding implementation, physicians who decline to accept exchange-based insurance, the escalation of costs within and outside the exchanges, the potential impact of scandal, and the serious duty to take action and remain steadfast in opposing the HHS mandate."


This crucial document is of great important for the public and we have given it a proud place as the masthead document of the newly christened OpenAccess page on the NCBC website. It is with pleasure that we provide this document to you for free, ahead of its slated February release. So please, take some time to read our HHS assessment now, before it hits the presses next year.

Visit the NCBC OpenAccess page HERE.

Happy Friday

The NCBC Completes Incredibly Successful Series of Annual Seminars in Health Care Ethics

It was a spectacular year for the National Catholic Bioethics Center's annual Seminar in Health Care Ethics. The venues were excellent, the speakers prepared, and the attendees professional and congenial in every way. More than this, both seminar locations, New Orleans and Philadelphia, were entirely SOLD OUT this year.

These seminars, help September 6-7 and September 20-21 this year, are one of the mainstays of the NCBC's annual programming. The seminars provide an unparalleled learning opportunity in bioethics for all professionals, lay and religious, and they serve as a starting point (or in some cases, a conclusion) for those enrolled in the year-long Certification Program in Health Care Ethics.

A great deal of effort goes into the preparation for the event, and many hands at the NCBC helped to make the work light.

Executive Vice President of the NCBC, Deacon John Hunter, and his assistants were instrumental in ensuring the success of the program, particularly when it came to creating the seminar booklet and materials and guaranteeing that the professionalism and organization of the Center would permeate the overall tone of the events.

 

NCBC Executive Vice President, Deacon John Hunter (far left)shown here Dr. Marie Hilliard at the Philadelphia Seminar

 

The seminar booklets were just one part of the many materials NCBC staff prepared beforehand

 

 

Books for sale, posters, and promotional material in Philadelphia.

 

Entrance to the Philadelphia Seminar (down right). Main foyer of 

the Philadelphia Archdiocesan Pastoral Center shown.

 

Registration for the Seminar was prepared and run by Julie Kelley (far right) with the assistance of Elizabeth Lee

The seminars covered a full range of ethical topics this year. The NCBC ethicists gave gripping presentations on contraception, sterilization, stem cell research, reproductive technologies, cooperation with evil, end of life care, sexual assault protocol, and much more.

 Dr. John Haas gives an introduction to Catholic bioethics

 

Father Tad and Dr. Ted Furton look on as Dr. Haas gives his presentation.

 

             Dr. Ted Furton speaking on End-of-Life care.

 

Dr. Marie Hilliard speaking on Ethical Approaches to 

Complications Encountered Before and After Birth

 

Father Tad Pacholczyk speaking on the ethics of stem cells 

and reproductive technologies

The presentations were powerful and provided ample fodder for discussion afterward.

 

 

 

82 people attended the program in New Orleans, while Philadelphia saw 75 attendees!

 

New Orleans Seminar, 2013

  

Dr. Marie Hilliard addresses the group at the New Orleans Seminar

The New Orleans Seminar concluded festively with a small party held at the home of the Seminar's most generous host (and NCBC Board Chairman) the Most Reverend Gregory M. Aymond, Archbishop of New Orleans.

The beautiful Archbishop's Residence in New Orleans, Louisiana

NCBC Staff with Archbishop Aymond
(From Left): NCBC Ethicist, Father Tad Pacholczyk; Staff Ethicist, John A. Di Camillo; NCBC President, Dr. John Haas;
Chairman of the NCBC Board, the Most Reverend Gregory M. Aymond, Archbishop of New Orleans; NCBC Executive Vice-President, John K. Hunter; NCBC Ethicist and Director of Public Policy, Dr. Marie Hilliard

The NCBC was further blessed to have a handful of sponsors for the seminars. We are incredibly grateful to all those who sponsored our event. You can see their logos below:

 

All in all, it was a successful and laudable seminar series this year!

If you are interested in attending the NCBC Seminar in Health Care Ethics next year, or, are just curious to see what you missed, you may view a copy of the speaking schedule for New Orleans, HERE and for Philadelphia, HERE.

Hope to see you next year!

Seminars 2013

Happy Friday!

BREAKING: Father Tad Pacholczyk Radio Interview TODAY

Father Tad Pacholczyk, Ethicist and Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, has just confirmed that he will be speaking on Relevant Radio today, July 11th, at 3:00 P.M.

Father Tad will be giving the interview on the Drew Mariani Show and will be considering the ethics of gene therapy, the artificial creation of human chromosomes, In-Vitro Fertilization, and embryonic 'gene screening.'

Head to Relevant Radio online today at 3:00 P.M. to listen in!

WATCH: Father Tad Pacholczyk Talks Human Cloning, Insurance Coverage, and Angelina Jolie on Live T.V.

Last night, May 30th, 2013, Ethicist and Director of Education at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, Father Tad Pacholczyk had the opportunity to film a segment with Raymond Arroyo for his show The World Over in Washington, D.C..

Father Tad

The live broadcast occurred at 8 P.M. Eastern time and, in under 20 minutes, Father Tad tackled the therapeutic embryonic cloning debate, patenting human genetic material, the moral concerns of insurance coverage for contraceptives and even news relating to Angelina Jolie's mastectomy!

Watch this fantastic news interview on youtube, HERE beginning at minute 41:15.

If you have cable television with access to EWTN, you can watch secondary broadcasts on:

 - Sunday at 7 P.M. Eastern

- Monday at 10 P.M. Eastern

And be sure to read father Tad's written response to the recent advances in therapeutic embryonic cloning for stem cells HERE and HERE.

Happy Friday!

Human Stem Cells Created by "Therapeutic Cloning" - Assessing the Ethics

New Article on Cloning and Stem Cells by the National Catholic Bioethics Center's Director of Education, Father Tad.

Taken from the NCBC Homepage

To read more articles like this, click HERE

Have a blessed and triumphant Pentecost.

___________________________________________________________________________

5/17/13 

Advocates are quick to point out that stem cell research is about helping those who are living. This is not quite correct. Certainly adult stem cell research is about helping the living. Embryonic stem cell research, on the other hand, is about destroying some of the living, namely those who are still young and vulnerable as embryos, in the name of helping others who may be struggling with diseases. Recent research from the laboratory of Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health & Science University involving the production of human embryos by nuclear transfer (a form of cloning) relies on this same immoral step of intentional human embryo destruction in the interest of achieving a therapeutic result.

Prior to this breakthrough, human embryonic stem cell research had largely sought to utilize abandoned embryos frozen in liquid nitrogen, “left over” from fertility treatments, to destructively obtain stem cells. The frozen embryo approach was plagued with a persistent difficulty, however. If Jane Doe were to request that a random embryo, stored in the freezer of a local fertility clinic, be destroyed to obtain stem cells to treat some ailment or disease she had, those cells, when introduced into her body, would be seen as foreign because they came from an embryo to which she was not genetically related, and they would be summarily rejected by her body.

"Therapeutic" cloning of the type reported by the Mitalipov laboratory purports to get around the rejection problem by producing a genetically related embryo, that is to say, an embryonic human clone who is a genetic identical twin of the treatment recipient. Starting from one of Jane’s body cells and an egg cell, this new embryonic twin sister would be grown for about 5 days of gestation in the laboratory before being destroyed to extract the desired stem cells. Because identical twins can exchange kidneys and other organs without rejecting them, stem cells taken from the cloned embryo (the younger genetic twin) would not be rejected upon transplantation into Jane (the older twin). Yet producing our own twin brothers or sisters as embryos merely to harvest them for their desired cells – producing life simply to extinguish it – remains a gravely unethical and morally indefensible proposal. Twenty human eggs were used in the attempt to therapeutically clone a patient with Leigh syndrome in Mitalipov’s work, but only two of the cloned embryos ended up yielding stem cells. Numerous human embryos, produced for the explicit and premeditated purpose of their destruction, are typically required for the success of this technique.

We ought not sanction the creation of a subclass of human beings, comprised of those still in their embryonic or fetal stages, to be exploited by those fortunate enough to have already passed safely beyond those early and vulnerable stages. The research from the Mitalipov laboratory represents a turn in the wrong direction for the future of science, and needs to be repudiated as inherently unethical, even more so in light of the continual and impressive progress being made with morally acceptable alternatives such as induced pluripotent stem cells and various forms of adult stem cells.

 

Father Tad Pacholczyk

NCBC Ethicist on the Radio! -- UPDATE

Did you miss the interview with The NCBC's ethicist and Director of Education, Father Tad?

Never Fear! Catholic Answers Radio has now made the archived version of Monday's interview available for streaming or download!

Listen in to the call-in Q&A episode HERE.

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.