(NRO) – I have been following — and criticizing — the bioethics movement for more than twenty years. As I see it, the mainstream view seeks to instill a utilitarianist philosophy on both the ethics of medicine and the public policies of health care, including where “common morality” — as the views of the great unwashed is sometimes denigrated in the field — disagrees.
Legalized euthanasia, free and unfettered abortion at all stages of gestation, infanticide, eugenic embryo engineering, invidious forms of health-care rationing based on “quality of life,” etc., are all part of the mainstream bioethics agenda, or at the very least, are seen as respectable advocacy memes.
Catholic medical practice is the great impediment to pulling off this culture-subverting mission. Indeed, Catholic hospitals were established — at great private expense — with the explicit purpose of providing medical care consistent with the sanctity of life ethic of the Catholic Church.
For example, Catholic hospitals will not sterilize patients, participate in abortion, or assist suicides. Similarly, some Catholic doctors refuse to practice outside their faith precepts. (Of course, these doctors should always make their faith-based approach clear to prospective patients.) CONTINUE