What do you do when you are a Catholic hospital in value conflict? Ignore the Pope or ignore the indigent, the needs of American Catholics for birth control and abortions, and healthcare generally in conflict with the edicts of Rome?
It’s a tough call, but according to Jacob Appel today on the Huffington Post the saving grace is that doctors in these hospitals are still bound by the same ethical guidelines regardless of the kind of hospital they are working in, Catholic or not.
And thank goodness, I would really hate to have the Pope governing my healthcare decisions. So if you have to go to a Catholic healthcare institution, be glad that there are medical ethics guidelines for your healthcare professionals.
Summer Johnson, PhD