Understanding Bioethics

“Making Sense of Bioethics” CMS – The National Catholic Bioethics Center

Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #232 : The Ethics of Genetically Modifying Human Embryos July 31, 2026
Now is the time [for] serious reflection on the moral and ethical issues involved in genetic modification of human embryos…
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #231 : The Ethics of Suicide and Organ Donation May 29, 2026
These examples involving suicide and organ donation remind us of the ease with which we can be drawn into cooperating with evil in the name of doing good.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #230 : Is It Ethical to Clone Animals? January 30, 2026
If animal cloning becomes widespread, as seems likely, it may have the subtle effect of shifting our attitudes and perceptions towards the animal kingdom.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #229 : Embryo Adoption: An Open Question? November 29, 2025
Key magisterial texts indicate that the practice of embryo transfer involves fundamentally unethical actions.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #228 : Laws Providing Cover for Unethical Actions in Medicine October 30, 2025
“Lawmakers ought not ‘provide legal cover in the form of “immunity from prosecution” for medical personnel who participate in various unethical practices.’’’
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #227 : Ethical Issues Involved with “Pregnancy Robots” September 26, 2025
It remains profoundly unethical to generate new life in test tubes, pregnancy robots, or other devices.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #226 : A Gift, but With an Expiration Date. August 29, 2025
Coming to accept our situation, with all its ups and downs, helps us begin preparing for our earthly end, death itself, prompting us to take up core questions about life’s meaning.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #225 : "De-Extincting" Long-Vanished Animal Species? May 27, 2025
Even if de-extinction efforts do not seem to cross fundamental ethical lines, it behooves us to try to be clear, open, and ecologically-rigorous about the purposes, motivations and goals that undergird these endeavors.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #224 : Is There Any Reason I Shouldn’t Do Yoga? April 15, 2025
It is precisely those metaphysical and spiritual beliefs surrounding yoga that raise concerns for faithful Christians.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #223 : The Trump Executive Order on IVF February 28, 2025
Given the moral objectionability of IVF, the administration should seek instead to forbid the practice through statutory mechanisms, or, if that is not yet politically possible, limit and circumscribe the practice by bringing it under tight regulation and oversight.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #222 : Getting “Death with Dignity” Right December 30, 2024
We are being cajoled as a society into believing the contradiction that ‘death with dignity’ means killing ourselves, or letting someone else kill us.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column # 221 : Catholic Hospitals and “Gender Reassignment” for Minors? October 30, 2024
Catholic hospitals may never condone or participate in... the range of practices coming under the heading of “gender transition.” This is especially important when these involve offering puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, "top surgeries" and "bottom surgeries” to children and young people.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #220 : Evaluating Medical Use of Marijuana During Pregnancy August 30, 2024
Cannabis use during pregnancy and lactation raises the prospect of adversely affecting not only neurodevelopment, but also subsequent neuropsychiatric, behavioral and executive functioning of the child.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #219 : Contextualizing Near-Death Experiences June 28, 2024
... we should generally prefer a natural explanation for a phenomenon, unless and until the evidence for a supernatural explanation becomes truly compelling or overwhelming.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #218 : The Most Serious Miscalculation of All? May 23, 2024
In considering our own death, we may entertain a strong wish that there be no more sufferings on the other side, especially when it comes to justifying our decision to engage in physician-assisted suicide. Simply having such a wish, however, does not actually make it so.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #217 : Poking the Hornet’s Nest of IVF March 29, 2024
IVF involves at least two major moral problems —the ‘collateral damage problem’ and the ‘intrinsic problem.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #216 : Surrogacy and Child Trafficking February 29, 2024
Surrogacy involves a form of “trafficking” of children, implying that children are being bought and sold, treated as property and often transported across international borders, which, all in all, sums up many contemporary aspects of surrogacy.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #215 : The Ethics of Neuroimplants and Brain-Computer Interfaces October 24, 2023
Brain-Computer Interfaces could offer important medical and therapeutic uses in the future, they also are poised for dubious or clearly immoral uses.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #214 : Genetic Privacy- Should Law Enforcement Have Access to Your Newborn’s Blood? July 31, 2023
Our DNA and our genetic code contains important personal information about us. This means that our individual ‘bio-informatics’ should not be used or brokered by others without our awareness and consent.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education
Making Sense of Bioethics: Column #213 : Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and the Tragic Seduction of Our Daughters June 30, 2023
Sex touches us at a deeper level than other activities, binding us to another. It speaks a language not of autonomy, but of communion and enduring self-gift.
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, PhD—Director of Education

“Making Sense of Bioethics” CMS – The National Catholic Bioethics Center

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