Care for the beginning of life. The revised Ethical and Religious Directives discuss abortion, contraception, and assisted reproduction.
Part 4 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services--which discusses such controversial issues as abortion, contraception, and assisted reproduction--is informed by a profound respect for human life and the institution of marriage. The controversies are familiar. But many in Catholic healthcare may be less familiar with the principles underlying Church teaching on these issues. Appropriate interpretation and application of these directives require that all concerned be educated in both the theological-ethical and the clinical dimensions of care giving. Directives 38 through 43 deal with reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization and surrogacy. Directives 52 and 53 express the Church's consistent teaching on contraceptive interventions. Directives 45 to 48, 50 to 51, and 54 reiterate the Church's firm stance on the inviolability of human life, including nascent human life. However, the directives also say that not all medical interventions resulting in fetal death are prohibited abortions. However, appropriate regard for human life, marriage, and the family require more than mere adherence to the directives' prescriptions and proscriptions. Ethics committees in Catholic healthcare should study clinical data as well as theological materials.
Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center, USA.
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D000028:Abortion, Induced / Q000592:standards; D033421:Beginning of Human Life; D002410:Catholicism; D003267:Contraception / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D016519:Hospitals, Religious / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D019369:Life; D011247:Pregnancy; D012099:Reproductive Techniques / Q000592:standards*; D012945:Social Values; D013245:Sterilization, Reproductive / Q000592:standards; D026712:Value of Life