The "Catholic" brand of health care is popular in the United States, among both Catholics and non-Catholics. One of every six patients receives care in a Catholic hospital, and countless patients in non Catholic settings receive care from individual Catholic professionals. I believe Catholic health care remains popular to the extent that Catholic health care providers authentically follow Catholic medical ethics (i.e., See the USCCB’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services and the Vatican’s Dignitas Personae). These ethics can be summarized as saying that providers must treat each patient - particularly the most vulnerable - as that provider should treat God! When a loved one is seriously ill, doesn't everyone want their provider to have such a perspective?
Catholic medical ethics maintain that each human life deserves absolute respect and protection from the very first moment of fertilization, until natural death. As such, it is completely consistent with the original wording of the Hippocratic Oath: "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy" (No, Hippocrates was not Catholic.).
Catholic medical ethics maintain that each human life has the right to originate in the loving embrace of a mom and dad, who are married. Yet no matter how each human life came to be and no matter how small, each is owed absolute respect and protection. Respect for how we originate and the sanctity of life is the gauge for evaluating reproductive technologies. When employed by a married couple, Catholic medical ethics say that assistance to AID the "marital act" toward procreation (e.g., unblocking of fallopian tubes, surgical repair of fallopian tubes, surgery for endometriosis, hormonal treatment for infertility) can be moral, while methods REPLACING the marital act (eg., cloning, egg donation, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), sperm donation, surrogacy) are to be excluded.
In a day and age of enhanced awareness about chemicals and additives in our foods, it is ironic that so many people ingest chemicals or utilize foreign objects to "protect" themselves from their natural fertility. The HHS mandate, forcing employers to pay for abortifacients/contraceptives and sterilizations, has nothing to do with good health care. Thus, it appears to have everything to do with enriching those benefiting from proliferation of sterilizations and abortifacients/ contraceptives (i.e., Planned Parenthood identifies at least seven hormonal contraceptive manufacturers headquarted in the Philly suburbs and Central/North Jersey:
- G.D. Searle / Pharmacia of North Peapack, NJ
- Gynetics Inc of Lawrenceville, NJ
- Merck of Whitehorse, NJ
- Ortho-McNeil of Raritan, NJ
- Pfizer of Morris Plains, NJ
- Warner-Chilcott of Rockaway, NJ
- Wyeth Pharmaceuticals of St Davids, PA)
Incorporating fertility awareness and other morally acceptable aid, NaPro Technology is also far more successful in helping couples achieve pregnancy than IVF - and monumentally less expensive!
A wholistic approach to health care,
NaPro Technology has
had phenomenal success in treating amenorrhea, chronic vaginal discharges, effects
of stress, endometriosis, infertility (male and female), menstrual cramps,
ovarian cysts, pelvic pain, PMS, polycystic ovarian disease, recurrent
miscarriages, and unusual bleeding, as well as in the prevention of
pre-term birth. Yet because it rejects contraceptives, you won't see any
praise from the pharmaceutical industry!
The HHS ignores evidence for NaPro Technology but seeks to - in effect - "bail out" the pharmaceutical industry by forcing employers to finance abortifacients/ contraceptives, as well as sterilizations. The HHS mandate would also effectively nullify conscience protections. Where is "Occupy Wall Street" on such favoritism for corporations over people?
The HHS ignores evidence for NaPro Technology but seeks to - in effect - "bail out" the pharmaceutical industry by forcing employers to finance abortifacients/ contraceptives, as well as sterilizations. The HHS mandate would also effectively nullify conscience protections. Where is "Occupy Wall Street" on such favoritism for corporations over people?
