Organ Donation: What is the Position of the Catholic Church?
Stephen R. Napier PhD, ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center (Philadelphia, USA) gives a 3 minutes explanation of the position of the Catholic Church on Organ donation. This position is first and foremost a positive one. It is considered to be an act of generosity and charity. (Video)
The Erosion of Ethics in Organ Transplantation
Zenit, ‘the world seen from Rome’, reports from Washington, D.C.: “Caleb Beaver died at age 16 on Christmas Day in 2011 due to a previously undiagnosed congenital malformation of his blood vessels. His devastated parents agreed to the donation of his heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, and pancreas. Several months later, his mother and father were able to meet with the grateful recipient of Caleb’s heart and hear their son’s beating heart in this new body. While the meeting could not erase their grief, the meeting offered Caleb’s parents a small bit of consolation that his death had brought life to someone else. Organ donation can certainly be a supreme act of generosity. Pope John Paul II endorsed organ transplantation in both his encyclical Evangelium Vitae as well as his 2000 address to the 18th International Congress of the Transplantation Society as a way to build up an “authentic culture of life”. However, Pope John Paul II was also careful to insist that this lifesaving technology must be governed by critical ethical principles in order to fulfill its life affirming potential.”
Scientist affirms: ‘Condoms, HIV-AIDS and Africa – The Pope Was Right’

Map of Africa coloured according to the percentage of the Adult (ages 15-49) population with HIV/AIDS. Colour chart present in image. Countries coloured white have no information available.
In the Washington Post of March 29th, 2009, Edward C. Green, a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, affirmed that Pope Benedict XVI was right in what he said about Condoms, HIV-AIDS and Africa. When the pope gave his comments and said that ‘condom distribution isn’t helping, and may be worsening, the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa’, he set off a firestorm of protest, Green says. “Most non-Catholic commentary has been highly critical of the pope. (…) Yet, in truth, current empirical evidence supports him.” Take a read in order to learn what this scientist, who is not a catholic, had to share.
Continue reading on the website of the Washington Post.
Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services
In their ‘Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services’, Fifth Edition, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states: “Health care in the United States is marked by extraordinary change. Not only is there continuing change in clinical practice due to technological advances, but the health care system in the United States is being challenged by both institutional and social factors as well. At the same time, there are a number of developments within the Catholic Church affecting the ecclesial mission of health care. Among these are significant changesin religious orders and congregations, the increased involvement of lay men and women, a heightened awareness of the Church’s social role in the world, and developments in moral theology since the Second Vatican Council. A contemporary understanding of the Catholic health care ministry must take into account the new challenges presented by transitions both in the Church and in American society.

