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Phoenix bioethics conference hailed as ‘brilliant update’
By Joyce Coronel, The Catholic Sun
October 4, 2007
More than 60 health care professionals attended the National Catholic Bioethics Center’s conference Sept. 14-15 at the Diocesan Pastoral Center to understand the Church’s teaching on controversial medical issues.
The conference, “Urged on by Christ: Serving the Human Person in Medicine and the Life Sciences,” featured renowned writer and speaker Fr. Tadeuscz Pacholczyk as well as several other experts in bioethics, a field that studies the ethical and moral implications of new biological discoveries and biomedical advances.
The bioethics center’s experts in science, medicine and moral theology presented the Catholic perspective on topics including stem-cell research, in vitro fertilization, contraception, organ transplant and end-of-life concerns.
Mike Phelan, director of the diocesan Office of Marriage and Respect Life Issues, hailed the event as a “brilliant update.”
“The ethical concerns around medical issues are often challenging and the technological realities are constantly changing, so updates are necessary,” he noted.
Dr. Marci Moffitt, president of the Catholic Guild of Physicians of Phoenix, emphasized the importance of understanding Church teaching as it relates to health care. “If we don’t know the essential moral principles, we cannot justly apply them.”
The conference, Dr. Moffitt added, was an opportunity for health care professionals to “educate themselves on the Church’s teaching and apply that teaching in clinical practice.”
The annual conference is part of a certification process that some of those in attendance are undertaking. The National Catholic Bioethics Center, based in Philadelphia, is an organization devoted to education, consultation and research in bioethics.
The center offers a certification program that involves online classes, the writing of a mini thesis, passing an oral exam and taking part in a weekend conference such as the one held in Phoenix.
Dr. Moffitt and Deacon Dick Petersen, M.D., both earned their certificates from the center during the 2005-2006 session and attended the conference in Phoenix.
“The training has helped me both as a physician to be faithful and as a deacon to assist others in dealing with medical ethical questions,” Deacon Petersen said.
Protecting human dignity
John Haas, Ph.D., a moral theologian and the president of the bioethics center, began the first session with an overview of the Catholic vision for health care. He quoted extensively from the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a set of norms established by the American bishops in 1971 and updated in 2001.
“We built this whole seminar around those directives. I always come back to number three,” he told the crowd. “In accord with its mission, Catholic health care should help the poor, the children, the unborn, racial minorities, refugees, and in particular, the person with disabilities.”
Dr. Haas stressed that at its core, Catholic health care is an extension of the healing ministry of Jesus and that it is rooted in a profound commitment to promote and defend human dignity from conception to death.
“If you ever find yourself confused with an ethical position of the Catholic Church, ask yourself, ‘What aspect of human dignity does the Church see as jeopardized by this procedure?’ That’s the only reason the Church would indicate for a procedure not to be done.”
In vitro fertilization
Fr. Pacholczyk, a priest from Fall River, Mass., who holds a doctorate in neuroscience from Yale University and is the director of education for the bioethics center, provided the Catholic perspective on in vitro fertilization, stem cell research, cloning and the moral and ethical aspects of brain death.
“The concern is with human dignity,” he said. “Science opens up incredible powers in your hands, certainly for good, but also with the possibility of harming human dignity.”
He said that the desire of couples to have a baby of their own flesh and blood is a good, natural desire that the Church does not fault. Catholics must consider, however, not just the good ends they desire, but also the means by which a child is conceived.
“In human procreation, it is important to stress the collaboration with God,” Fr. Pacholczyk said, noting the Church’s opposition to in vitro fertilization.
“In America we’ve got this, ‘We’re going to make this happen’ kind of philosophy.’ We’ll pay as much as it takes, we’ll do the long hours,” he said. “It sounds noble at first, but you are stepping away from the collaborative effort with God to allow Him to do His role in this process.”
Gavin Ahern, who teaches theology at Xavier College Preparatory, said, “Many of the topics discussed at the conference are subjects which I cover with my seniors. The conference provided me with a deeper understanding of these issues.”
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