March 24, 2017
(Medscape) – A recent Medscape article examined rituals used by hospice staff and others who care for patients at the end of life. “Rituals are symbolic activities that can provide comfort, meaning, and support and relieve anxiety associated with uncertainties, … Read More
March 6, 2017
(The Atlantic) – When people believe their lives are meaningful, according to psychologists, it’s because three conditions have been satisfied: They feel their existence is valued by others; they are driven by a sense of purpose, or important life goals; … Read More
February 9, 2017
(BBC) – The Vatican has defended its decision to invite China to a conference on organ trafficking despite its record of using executed inmates as organ donors. The head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) admitted he did not … Read More
February 7, 2017
(The Guardian) – Vatican officials have defended their decision to invite a Chinese former deputy health minister to a conference on organ trafficking despite concerns that China still relies on the organs of executed prisoners in its transplant programme. Medical … Read More
February 6, 2017
(The Atlantic) – While most theologians aren’t paying it much attention, some technologists are convinced that artificial intelligence is on an inevitable path toward autonomy. How far away this may be depends on whom you ask, but the trajectory raises … Read More
January 20, 2017
(STAT News) – Nearly one-third of Colorado’s hospitals are refusing to offer terminally ill patients the option of physician-assisted suicide — even though voters last fall overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative legalizing the practice. And two of the state’s biggest … Read More
January 13, 2017
(NPR) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered government agencies to expand access to contraception, especially for poor women. By 2018, he instructs, all poor households in the country should have “zero unmet need for modern family planning.” Duterte’s executive … Read More
January 6, 2017
(Quartz) – Despite the fact that psychedelic drugs have been used for millennia as medicine in ritualistic ceremonies, there remain many questions in the scientific community about the relationship between their spiritual qualities and healing potential. Researchers at Johns Hopkins … Read More
January 5, 2017
(STAT News) – A transgender man sued a Roman Catholic hospital Thursday, saying it cited religion in refusing to allow his surgeon to perform a hysterectomy as part of his sex transition. Jionni Conforti’s sex and gender discrimination lawsuit comes … Read More
January 5, 2017
(NPR) – Desmond Tutu, South Africa’s former Anglican archbishop and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, recently celebrated his 85th birthday with an interesting message: He wants the option of an assisted death. Tutu has largely retired from public life, but … Read More
November 22, 2016
(The Wall Street Journal) – Pope Francis on Monday indefinitely extended the power of priests to forgive the “grave sin” of abortion, one of his signature gestures from the Catholic Church’s just-ended Jubilee Year of Mercy. The pope’s move, which allows priests … Read More
October 10, 2016
(The Washington Post) – Now, as I turn 85 Friday, with my life closer to its end than its beginning, I wish to help give people dignity in dying. Just as I have argued firmly for compassion and fairness in … Read More
August 29, 2016
(U.S. News & World Report) – Debates over religious liberty are as old as the republic, but recent policies have reignited the public’s interest in them. Whether it’s President Barack Obama’s signature health care law or an expansion of LGBT … Read More
August 1, 2016
(USA Today) – The Supreme Court’s defense of religious freedom may be on the decline. Still reeling from the death of its most devout justice, Antonin Scalia, the high court has put preventing discrimination above protecting religion in a series of cases … Read More
June 22, 2016
(Pew Research Center) – Abortion is still a difficult, contentious and even unresolved issue for some religious groups. The United Methodist Church provides one example of a religious group whose stand on abortion is not entirely clear. At its quadrennial … Read More
June 8, 2016
Christian Journal for Global Health (vol. 3, no. 1, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Christians and the SDGs” by H. Elliot Larson “Theological Foundations for an Effective Christian Response to the Global Disease Burden in Resource-Constrained Regions” … Read More
May 20, 2016
(The Conversation) – Depression at the end of life is often associated with loss of meaning. Research shows people who suffer from such loss die earlier than those who maintain purpose. This can be helped by nurturing the “spirit” – … Read More
May 17, 2016
American Journal of Law & Medicine (vol. 42, no. 1, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Can Physicians Prescribe Opioids to Treat Pain Adequately While Avoiding Legal Sanction?” by Kelly K. … Read More
May 12, 2016
Palliative Medicine (vol. 30, no. 4, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Doctors Discussing Religion and Spirituality: A Systematic Literature Review” by Megan Best, Phyllis Butow, and Ian Olver “Spiritual History Taking in Palliative Home Care: A Cluster … Read More
May 12, 2016
Christian Bioethics (vol. 22, no. 1, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Setting Medicine in the Context of a Faithful Christian Life” by Farr A. Curlin and Keith G. Meador “The Strength to Be Patient” by Stanley Hauerwas … Read More
May 4, 2016
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (vol. 19, no. 1, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Solicitude: Balancing Compassion and Empowerment in a Relational Ethics of Hope—An Empirical-Ethical Study in Palliative Care” by Erik Olsman, Dick Willems, and Carlo … Read More
April 21, 2016
(The New Yorker) – It was the annual meeting of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, a group of people who believe that the development and dissemination of advanced technologies—cryogenics, bionics, artificial intelligence, and so on—will raise humanity to the heights of power … Read More
April 20, 2016
(The Telegraph) – Was the judge, who acknowledged that “the safest point in time to have carried out the procedure has long since passed,” right in her refusal to withhold the circumcision order? Should children’s health be prioritised above the spirituality … Read More
April 12, 2016
Hastings Center Report (vol. 46, no. 2, 2016) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Why Bioethics Has a Race Problem” by John Hoberman “Emergence of a Discipline? Growth in U.S. Postsecondary Bioethics Degrees” “Keep It Complicated” by Gregory E. … Read More
March 11, 2016
(The Atlantic) – Abdirahman, a respiratory therapist in the intensive-care unit of Portland’s Mercy Hospital, is called into local hospitals three to four times a week for cases where members of Portland’s Somali community need help navigating the complexities of … Read More
