As noted below, I had a brief blogging hiatus occasioned by surgery. Seems like a good time for some reflections on Catholic healthcare.

There are Catholic bloggers whose previous posts indicate a desire to either eliminate or substantially curtail Catholic healthcare. I don’t believe that would be a reasonable or wise thing to do.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Facilities remind us that Catholic healthcare is the continuation of the healing ministry of Jesus. I don’t support curtailing our continuation of his sacramental or teaching ministries, why should I condone reduction in the healing ministry?

As a student of healthcare, though, there’s more yet to my objection.

Infection control is one of the biggest challenges faced by any healthcare provider. As old germs develop resistance to the standard courses of treatment and as new pathogens emerge, hospitals and other healthcare facilities will have an ever-increasing incentive to follow the most effective (and cost-effective) means of reducing infections among patients. There seems to be little hope for developing a drug that would simultaneously combat a full range of potential infectants. The best hope is for boosting the patient’s immune system. If cost weren’t an issue, intravenous immune globulin would likely be used in just such a way in hospitals today.

The recent push for therapeutic cloning opens up the possibility (I’d call it the likelihood) that researchers will work toward a cost-effective immune boost, probably based on cloning technology. This development will place a grave ethical situation in front of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and patients. Are all Catholics, then, to abandon the healthcare system? Should Catholics take the cafeteria view and simply divorce medical decisions from religion?

There must be a strong presence in healthcare that represents respect for human life. Only Catholic healthcare can fulfill that mandate. It has had too many failures in the past three decades, but we would do better to improve what we have than to abandon it!