On 27 April 2021, William Saunders, J.D., director of the M.A. Program in Human Rights, led a conversation among Catholic ethicists Dr. Jozef Zalot (National Catholic Bioethics Center) and Dr. Myles Sheehan (Pellegrino Center for Clinical Ethics; Georgetown Medical School), on the definition and scope of palliative and hospice care from a Catholic perspective.
Together they addressed questions related to sickness and death exacerbated during the pandemic. How do we best care for the sick and for the dying? How do we appropriately provide palliative care and hospice care?
Dr. Myles Sheehan begins the panel with a thoughtful presentation on the differences between hospice and palliative care – grounding the discussion in Saint Pope John Paul II’s writing in Evangelium Vitae:
From there, the panel explores nutrition and hydration management, the bioethics surrounding pain medication, and the alarming trend of a growing acceptance of assisted suicide in the medical community.
This was the first collaboration between the National Catholic Bioethics Center and the Institute for Human Ecology. A second event follows in May – learn more here.
You can watch the entire event here.
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