The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You

Right to life: A patient is pictured in a file photo chatting with a nun at Rosary Hill Home, a Dominican-run facility in Hawthorne, New York, that provides palliative care to people with incurable cancer and have financial need. Photo: CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz [/captions] WITH the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia in many countries, and questions concerning what is ... Read More »

I REMEMBER having a conversation with an intensive care doctor who told how when a patient was admitted to intensive care the family would frequently say “we want you to do all that you can for …”   The doctor doubted that they understood what “do all that you can” might mean, and that “doing all that you can” might ... Read More »

The Inquiry into aged care, end-of-life and palliative care and voluntary assisted dying by the Queensland government was an opportunity for us to consider the kind of society we want to be.  As Gandhi once said, “the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”.  Those in aged care and end of ... Read More »

HOW does an aged-care worker navigate the rights of a dementia patient who refuses to shower? How does a doctor decide when a patient can really consent to a procedure? Health workers are constantly called on to make critical decisions, yet they cannot always look to the law for answers. “Good law is very important, but being able to make ... Read More »

IT happened in our midst – an apparent planned and researched triple suicide on the Gold Coast. With the push to legalise euthanasia gaining momentum in states across Australia, it’s a chilling end-of-life strategy, with grave implications according to Catholic ethicists. “To choose to limit one’s life – to choose to miss out on life with its blend of joys ... Read More »

CONCERNS have been raised by a leading Catholic ethicist that some of Australia’s major IVF clinics have been misleading couples with information about success rates. Queensland priest Fr Kevin McGovern, emeritus director at the Caroline Chisholm Centre for Health Ethics, Melbourne, described as “deceitful” how some IVF clinics presented figures on their websites “to create the impression that the chance ... Read More »

QUEENSLAND politicians were in the middle of debating changes to the state’s abortion laws when figures on the rate of live-birth abortions surfaced. Health Minister Cameron Dick released figures recently on the number of late-term abortions where babies survived, but were not given care. The figures showed 27 babies were born alive following an abortion procedure in 2015. The total ... Read More »