Linacre Quarterly最新文献

The care for creation is an important call for all. Our human bodies form part of this created reality and should be treated with dignity and respect. Pope Benedict XVI underlined the ecology of man. Pope Francis took up this teaching in his pontificate, encouraging us to welcome the gift of our body, and critiquing ideologies which undermine the respect due our bodies. Proponents of the so-called "gender ideology" affirm surgery on the body, which generally involves the removal of healthy functioning tissues and organs, is largely mutilating, and can involve exorbitant costs. The voices of those who have "detransitioned" such as Keira Bell need also to be heard. The Congregation for Catholic Education, in its document "Male and Female He Created Them: Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education" warns us against theories that aim to annihilate the concept of "nature," that is, everything we have been given as a pre-existing foundation of our being and action in the world. Our growing awareness of the importance of the environment and nature can lead us to a greater respect for our own human nature. We are all called to participate in the care for nature and creation, especially of our bodies as part of the created reality.

Non-technical summary: Many voices today remind us to take care of nature and creation. Our bodies are part of this created reality. Proponents of gender ideology do not hesitate to promote surgery which radically alters and even mutilates the body. Our increasing ecological awareness can help us grow more sensitive to the ecology of man and woman, and value the gift of the nature and body given to each one of us.

Short summary: Let us take care of nature and creation, including our own bodies.

This paper presents the biological, philosophical, and theological arguments against "brain death" or death determined strictly through neurological criteria. It is rooted in a realistic, Thomistic metaphysical and anthropological view of the human person and the objective reality of death. Part I of the paper reviews the medical evidence that the bodies of those declared brain death are alive and makes clear that the bodies of "brain dead" patients are not biologically analogous to severed body parts. Part II presents the philosophical and theological argument that it is impossible to be a live human being and not a person. Since then those declared brain dead are somatically alive, they are live human persons with the right to life and cannot be subject to the extraction of vital, unpaired organs, since this would violate the dead donor rule. Part III reviews why the Magisterium has not unconditionally approved the determination of death through neurological criteria, and why it would be within the competence of the Magisterium to preclude medical professionals from determining death strictly through neurological criteria. The paper argues that there should be a ban on all vital, unpaired organ donation from "brain dead" donors.

Medication abortion represents more than 50 percent of abortions in the United States (US). Since its approval in the US in 2000, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has progressively relaxed the prescribing requirements such that currently, no office visit, in-person dispensing, or ultrasound is required. Obtaining medication for abortion online without medical supervision or evaluation is also possible. This article reviews the complications of medication abortion by examining major studies and delineates the risks specific to self-managed abortion to inform clinicians in caring for women.

Summary: Medication abortion has become the most common abortion method in the United States. This document provides a detailed history of the relaxation requirements on medication abortion and reviews the major studies on medication abortion complications including a discussion of their limitations. Finally, the paper delineates the ease of access to medication abortion without a health care provider and the risks associated with self-managed abortion. This paper is intended to provide information for clinicians who likely will be encountering increasing number of patients with such complications.

While the number of Catholic healthcare facilities has held stable over the last several decades, Catholic healthcare has followed the trend of merging facilities and systems into "mega-systems." These consolidations can be beneficial for creating continuums of care, lowering operating costs, ensuring long-term viability, and sharing physical, digital, and human resources. However, with larger systems comes a practical need to be integrated to some degree, and the pressure to standardize policies and practices across regions is present. To address this need and pressure, the Catholic Social Teaching principles of subsidiarity and participation should guide system and local administrators. Subsidiarity and participation encourage all decision making to happen at the most local levels and to include as many of the people those decisions affect as possible. I will review both the pragmatic benefits of keeping decisions as local and rooted as possible as well as the moral benefits of allowing as many administrators and health care professionals to exercise and form their virtues as moral agents. In a time when changes to medical care have created many procedural responsibilities and cut into time spent in moral witness, institutions, even mega-systems, should remain attentive to the ways in which the moral agents of their system are formed and exercised.