About Events Publications Media Search Shop Donate
About Events Publications Media Search Shop Donate
Catholics and Health Care
Religion & Liberty Online

Catholics and Health Care

by Samuel Gregg • October 13, 2009

The Detroit News published my commentary on Catholics and health care reform in today’s newspaper. A slightly longer version of the article will appear in tomorrow’s Acton News & Commentary:

Catholic America is about as divided about health care reform as the rest of the country. But there are a small number of non-negotiables for Catholics that principally concern any provisions that facilitate or encourage the intentional termination of innocent human life or diminish existing conscience exemptions.

These issues dwarf everything else for Catholics who take their church’s teaching seriously when applied to the health care legislation. No matter how good the rest of the legislation might be in widening access to affordable health care, it is a principle of Catholic faith and natural law that you cannot do evil so good may come from it. St. Paul insisted upon this almost 2,000 years ago (Romans 3:8), and it is constantly affirmed by Scripture, tradition and centuries of magisterial teaching.

For this reason, much of the Catholic contribution to the health care debate, especially that of Catholic bishops, has focused on these issues. But imagine the health care legislation involved a massive expansion of government involvement that didn’t promote abortion or other non-negotiables. Would Catholics be obliged to support passage of such legislation?

The answer is no. Catholic moral teaching has held that the realization of good ends (such as making health care more affordable and accessible) mostly falls into the realm of prudential judgment. The church has always recognized that faithful Catholics can disagree about such matters.

Read the entire article here.

Samuel Gregg

Samuel Gregg is the Friedrich Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at the American Institute for Economic Research, an affiliate scholar at the Acton Institute, and author, most recently, of The Next American Economy: Nation, State, and Markets in an Uncertain World.

Posted in Acton Commentary, News and EventsTagged catholic social thought, detroit news, health care

Related posts

  • Healthcare and Catholics: True and False Arguments
  • Catholics, Abortion, and the Health Care Debate
  • CST and Health Care
  • Health Care Roundtable

About

Our Mission & Core Principles Acton Grants and Awards Acton Research Our Team Careers Internships News

Events

Events Calendar Lecture Series Conference Series Acton University

Publications

Religion & Liberty Online Acton Notes Religion & Liberty Religion & Liberty Transatlantic Acton Books Journal of Markets & Morality

Multimedia

Videos Podcasts Films

Shop

Donate

Contact Us

© 2022 Acton Institute | Privacy Policy
Exit mobile version