It has become a commonly accepted claim that children of homosexual parents fare as well as children of heterosexual parents. The author investigates the social science research to establish the accuracy of this claim and discovers sampling errors, invalid comparison groups, questionable outcome measures, and insufficient power. The author then examines a study by Mark Regnerus, which finds that children are most likely to succeed as adults if they spend their childhood with their married mother and father. The only scientifically proven conclusion that can be reached is that children who are raised by their married biological parents have the healthiest developmental outcomes. Claims that outcomes for children of same-sex parents are no different from outcomes for children of married parents have not been scientifically proved. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.3 (Autumn 2013): 437–444.

Providing food and water, even by tube, is in principle an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made that clear in its August 1, 2007, statement on the matter. However, a pressing question remains: What about oxygen? Food and water are necessary for life. Is not oxygen equally necessary? So why did the CDF not also declare the use of a mechanical ventilator to be in principle an ordinary and proportionate means of preserving life? Conversely, if the use of a ventilator is extraordinary means, then why is the artificial provision of food and water proportionate means? Is there an inconsistency here? The author argues that there is not. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.3 (Autumn 2013): 453–467.

The last several years have been marked by a seemingly increasing numbers of individuals with homosexual inclinations. There are consequences to society-wide increases in disordered dispositions, and this paper presents one such consequence. Patients often enter the physician–patient relationship basedon the physician’s “sexual preference.” In order to avoid sexual misconduct from a physician, patients often choose physicians that are not inclined to be sexually attracted to the patient. It is often assumed that a patient can infer a physician’s sexual inclinations by his or her gender, but this is not the case. Due to the inability to determine a health care professional’s “sexual preference” by their gender, a physician has a duty to disclose this information prior to care. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.3 (Autumn 2013): 445–450.

Societies have an obligation to ensure that their citizens have access to health care, but there are disagreements over how this system should be structured. The most contentious issue centers on the morality of specific therapies or actions. In this essay, the author examines the influence of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on private employer health plans. He concludes that the Church’s teaching on the inherent dignity and worth of every human life should be the guiding principle for assessing the relative merits of differing approaches to constructing a comprehensive and equitable system for financing and delivering medical care. The patient’s conscience should be primary. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.3 (Autumn 2013): 419–426.

In Evangelium vitae, Pope John Paul II writes that the culture of death is the consequence of society embracing a “positivist mentality.” Given both where the Church is culturally situated as well as her call for a New Evangelization, this article offers a critique of positivist mentality that attempts to draw out of its advocates the natural law that is “written in the heart.” This critique includes an analysis of the article “After-Birth Abortion: Why Should the Baby Live?” authored by Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva and published in 2013 in the Journal of Medical Ethics. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.4 (Winter 2013): 601–609.

The Obama administration’s HHS mandate to force Catholic and other religious organizations to provide insurance coverage for morally objectionable practices has been the source of a great deal of controversy. While the religious liberty question has received the most attention, the mandate reveals a yet deeper problem in the mainstream acceptance of contraception and even abortion as normal parts of medical practice. The author argues that these practices constitute a deep corruption of medicine itself, away from its original meaning as a kind of restorative justice grounded in a substantive understanding of the human good and toward a formalist emphasis on preference satisfaction and patient autonomy. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.4 (Winter 2013): 625–633.

It can be confusing to define the object of an action because it may be unclear if there is a per se or a per accidens order to the end. Three common difficulties in distinguishing between these are that the per se ordering must be either in the nature of the end or in the act, that this ordering to an end is a real and not merely a logical one, and that technology has a tendency to ignore the teleology of natures by breaking things down to their parts for manipulation. Having drawn these distinctions, craniotomy is then compared to lethal self-defense. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.4 (Winter 2013): 611–616.

The purpose of this essay is to explain what the terms “formal cooperation” and “material cooperation” mean in the thought of St. Alphonsus Liguori, who is a pivotal figure in the Church’s tradition of reflection on cooperation and is often referenced when the distinction between formal and material cooperation in evil is discussed. The author explains why—and to some extent when—mainstream Catholic moralists who associate themselves with Alphonsus speak of some cooperation as formal and other cooperation as material. Specifically, he discusses two factors that are essential for the analysis of cooperation in evil—(1) the meaning of the term “formal” and (2) the role of “segments of intelligibility” in determining what is material rather than formal cooperation. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.4 (Winter 2013): 663–675.

Levonorgestrel is widely used as emergency contraception, yet much confusion surrounds its use. Consensus statements and reviews typically attribute its efficacy to prefertilization mechanisms of action (MOAs), such as suppression of ovulation and interference with cervical mucus or sperm function, yet studies do not rule out a postovulatory MOA. To yield greater clarity, the authors review recent scientific studies examining the MOAs of LNG-EC. They conclude that LNG-EC exerts minimal effects on cervical mucus and sperm function and that suppression of ovulation is not the dominant MOA accounting for the contraceptive efficacy of LNG-EC. Luteal deficiencies and endometrial changes reported in the literature strongly suggest a postovulatory MOA when LNG-EC is given during the critical preovulatory (or fertile) period. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.4 (Winter 2013): 677–716.

Certain scholars wish to acquit St. Thomas Aquinas of the “illicit inference from facts to norms” commonly referred to as the naturalistic fallacy. Seeing in certain passages his awareness of illegitimate ways to derive morality from natural ends, many have come to read Aquinas as agreeing with the view that knowledge of the moral order does not derive from knowledge of human nature and of the natural ends of its parts and powers. This paper aims to expose the deficiencies of this reading as a way of bringing more fully into view the whole thought of Aquinas on the question. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.4 (Winter 2013): 637–661.

This article offers a critical examination of the notion of the common good in Catholic social ethical teaching, comparing this concept with utilitarianism and examining parallels between them and common critiques of both. Rather than focusing on the common good and trying to reach agreement on its content as a maximum standard for persons and communities in society, we argue that it is preferable to focus on the common harm. The common harm serves as a minimum standard of what causes harm to individuals and communities in society and should be avoided. The common harm provides both a conceptually sound and practically achievable construct for contributing positively to the social ethical discussion in an increasingly secular society. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.4 (Winter 2013): 617–623.

The authors offer a fresh look at the debate about the use of assisted nutrition and hydration (ANH) in advanced dementia. The philosophical and ethical issues are presented. The importance of distinguishing basic care from medical acts is explained. A key question is addressed: Does ANH nourish and hydrate the patient with dementia? The ANH debate is placed in its cultural context and contrasted with the Catholic response. A clinical analysis of the evidence for benefit and harm of ANH in advanced dementia is given. The authors point out the lack of hard evidence against ANH, discuss questions that need further clinical research, and argue that there is sufficient evidence for a presumption, in principle, in favor of ANH in patients with advanced dementia. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 14.1 (Spring 2014): 53–63.

Following new scientific evidence, removal of the fallopian tubes or the ovaries, or both, are options for reducing the risk of ovarian cancer. This paper examines the new scientific evidence on the origin of ovarian cancer and argues that the removal of fallopian tubes or ovaries in high-risk patients for the purpose of reducing risk of cancer is not intrinsically disordered. Although a present and serious pathology may not exist, this removal constitutes an indirect sterilization, because the immediate and primary effect is the reduction in risk of a pathological condition. This effect occurs immediately, directly, and effectively, and sterilization is a secondary effect. The paper then reflects on the subsequent inadequacy of the language of “present and serious pathology” given the new evidence on ovarian cancer. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 14.1 (Spring 2014): 67–79.

Through personal testimony, the author details the experience of fathering a baby with a poor prenatal diagnosis. The author invites the reader to follow his journey, from learning his wife is pregnant, through their experiences as a family with their unborn daughter’s poor prenatal diagnosis, welcoming their baby girl at her birth, and ultimately finding peace in her early passing. Perinatal peer support is discussed and encouraged, drawing attention to the needs and concerns of the babies, women, and families who may not know to seek help in a similar situation. Great honor is given to the beauty and sanctity of life from the perspective of a father with a sick unborn child. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 14.1 (Spring 2014): 31–37.

Evidence suggests that the nurse’s role as an advocate for patients and for the professional right to conscience is being eroded because of a lack of conscience protections in the Patient Affordable Care Act and because of a faulty understanding in general of the separation of church and state. While the main task of the principle of separation of church and state is to secure religious liberty, the principle is increasingly interpreted in a secularist way to mean that religion must be confined to the home and church and that people of conscience may not object to immoral practices in the workplace or public square. If nurses must risk their jobs to advocate for their patients, patient care will suffer. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 14.1 (Spring 2014): 47–52.