The Joy of the Truth

A new law requiring insurers to cover the costs of chochlear implants for children has drawn opposition. What is the complaint? Is is that . . .

• Government has overstepped its bounds, once again meddling in affairs that should be left to market forces?

No

• the law puts undue burden on small business who now have to pay a higher premium to insure their employees?

No

The naturalist and utilitarian philosophies creeping into the medical profession often keep unresponsive patients from getting therapies that could help them or the care they deserve as human persons. Our culture must make the choice to treat unresponsive patients as people to be loved in their time of need. Continue reading

Too often we allow the Culture of Death to frame the cultural dialogue for us. Catholics need to be careful to frame end-of-life issues in the language of the Culture of Life and the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Catholic moral teaching on end-of-life decisions help us to celebrate a life well lived and a death experienced with integrity, love and hope. The Culture of Death adds burden and guilt to death and fails to see the value in the life of those who suffer and those who are incapacitated. Continue reading

A friend and I are going to a medical ethics conference tomorrow. One of the featured speakers is John Hardt, Ph.D. It promises to be more frustrating than enlightening, but it is good to hear what kind of moral arguments are being forwarded in the area of medical ethics. An article the John Hardt wrote at the end of last year shows me what we’re in for… Continue reading

We were recently chosen to adopt a baby girl, our first child. In our travels to pick her up, I found myself meditating on the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary. It struck me how much our own experience of expanding the love of our family parallels the way that God expanded the sign of His love by sending His Son. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me. After all, that’s what… Continue reading