I’m back with Rebecca in the latest episode of BioTalk. This time we’re talking about genetic testing and what could happen to your DNA after it leaves your body. Or Audio only: Generally speaking, genetic testing is ethically neutral. In fact, in some cases it may be medically, and therefore ethically, necessary. But, whether you’re getting tested for legitimate health … Read More
Audio: Suicide Confusion and Chimera Research Funding
Last week I was on the Mike Allen Show to discuss our cultural confusion about suicide and the troubling trend toward chimeras. Suicide Confusion September was National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Last September was also a big month for assisted suicide advocates. Among the headlines last month: The first minor was euthanized in Belgium since Parliament lifted all age restrictions … Read More
Funding Chimera Research: Your Chance to Speak Up
By this point, many, if not most of you have heard that the NIH recently announced that it will probably lift a ban on funding for animal-human chimeras. To be clear, there are no federal laws prohibiting any of this, other than one statute that prohibits gestating a human baby in an animal womb (fetus farming). Last September, the NIH … Read More
Audio: On Me Before You and the Scientifically Progressive Catholic Church
“I had heard this was a good book and read it. I was horrified.” That was the reaction from a friend of mine to the book Me Before You, which has been made into a major motion picture hitting theaters this weekend. Last Friday I talked to Mike Allen about why Me Before You is yet another bad chapter in … Read More
A Gift From God or Science?
I know many people who consider third party reproduction (3PR) a “gift from God” to suffering infertile couples. But as far as I can see, 3PR is and has been, more than anything I’ve seen in modern history, a prime example of human beings “playing God.” The latest example comes from American model Chrissy Teigen and her Grammy winning husband, … Read More
“Mother”
Happy New Year and, more importantly, a blessed solemnity of Mary the Mother of God! Andrea Solario, Madonna With the Green Cushion The body is noble because the Son of God, in assuming flesh, did not do so by appearing in the full bloom and blossom of manhood. He thought so much of it that He took His Body from … Read More
Holy Innocents: Yesterday and Today
A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. -Jeremiah 31:15 Today, December 28, the Church remembers the “Holy Innocents” who lost their lives in Bethlehem shortly after Christ’s birth. Then it was all boys age two and under who … Read More
Bioethics and the Birth of Christ
This is a classic post, from Msgr. Charles Pope on “Bioethics and the Birth of Christ”: As we approach Christmas we ought to ponder the magnificence of human conception, gestation, birth and life. Even as we extoll the birth of Jesus, we also do well to acknowledge the awesome and mysterious truth that every human person emerges not merely from … Read More
The Immaculate Conception
I’m always amazed when people try to come up with a religious argument for supporting the destruction of nascent human life. I’ve heard the “abortion isn’t mentioned in the bible” line and, of course, the excuse that some fathers of the Church thought ensoulment was delayed till a few weeks after conception. That’s why I love today’s feast commemorating the … Read More
Their Problems Are Our Problems
In his address to Congress last month, Pope Francis expressed concern for the family, which he says is “threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without.” He particularly called attention to, “those family members who are the most vulnerable, the young.” The children. When society starts messing around with the meaning of marriage and family, it’s always the children … Read More