More than 20 years ago, Dr. David Eddy, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, described how his mother, though not suffering from a terminal illness, chose to end her life through VSED (voluntarily stopping eating and drinking). She was “very independent, very self-sufficient, and very content.” When she began to be afflicted […]
Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk: Esteeming our elders
Occasionally we hear disturbing stories in the media about young people who perpetrate abuse against the elderly. In a widely reported 2009 story, for example, caretakers at the Quadrangle Assisted Living facility outside Philadelphia were charged in connection with the abuse of an elderly patient named Lois McCallister. Three employees, aged 19, 21 and 22, […]
Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk: Physician-assisted suicide and confronting our fears
The prospect of a very attractive, recently-married young woman with a terminal illness facing excruciating pain and suffering as she dies is enough to move anyone. The life and death of 29 year old Brittany Maynard recently captured enormous media attention when she declared she was moving to Oregon to commit suicide after having been […]
Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk: Renegade researchers and the future of biomedical research
Producing human embryos in the laboratory for research purposes makes most people uneasy. Even those who tolerate the creation of embryos in test tubes so that infertile couples might have children will often have reservations about the creation of embryos to serve as experimental research material or to destroy them for their cellular parts. Twenty […]