During February, Pope Francis' monthly intentions asked the faithful to pray for the terminally ill -- as well as their families -- with the petition that they "receive the necessary physical and spiritual care and accompaniment."
Such a plea is -- for both
The pope's prayer intention for the month of February is dedicated to people who are terminally ill, and in his video message, he said, "Even when little chance for a cure exists, every sick person has the right to medical, psychological, spiritual
A recent article in the New York Times featured the story of Julie, who since 2017 had battled ovarian cancer and recently opted for medically assisted suicide after her doctor predicted she had two to three months left to live. When Julie,
Are Catholics permitted to baptize a dying individual? If so, how is that done and what is spoken over the person? Monsignor Charles Pope explains: “In danger of death, many of the rules about sacraments are relaxed while what is urgent and
A Catholic bioethics institute has criticized a court for denying an "alert and conscious" teenager the legal right to fight a move to put her on end-of-life care against her will. The Anscombe Bioethics Center, an Oxford-based institute serving the Catholic Church
(OSV News) As an observing member of the Drafting Committee to Revise the Uniform Declaration of Death Act (UDDA) Dr. Christopher DeCock — talking with Charlie Camosy on behalf of OSV News — discusses an upcoming (and highly problematic) possible revision to
Discover the life of Dr. Michael Brescia, who was a pioneer of hospice care in New York for decades. In sharing the story of his life and legacy, Kathryn Jean Lopez writes that Dr. Brescia “wouldn’t go home at night if he
Nations that legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide develop higher rates of "self-initiated" suicides than those that do not, according to a new research document by a Catholic bioethics institute.
The Oxford-based Anscombe Bioethics Centre, which serves the Catholic Church in Great Britain and
Italy's Constitutional Court has blocked a national referendum on legalizing euthanasia, saying it would violate constitutional protections of human life.
The court, which ruled in 2019 against punishing a physician for assisting with the death of a terminally ill patient experiencing intolerable suffering,
When euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is legalized, "it starts to be regarded as a 'normal death,'" and even as the most desirable way of dying, said a professor from Belgium, where euthanasia has been legal for 20 years.
Chris Gastmans, a professor of