No easy answer to end-of-life care questions, speakers agree

Published: 2006-05-01

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Two Catholic ethicists with differing views on end-of-life issues found at least one point on which to agree at an April 27 conference at Fordham University. Father Michael D. Place, vice president for ministry development at Resurrection Health Care in Chicago, and John M. Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia, agreed that questions about Catholic teachings on end-of-life decisions and their specific application in the case of Terri Schiavo last year will not be easily resolved. "While it is easy to agree that all life is sacred, it is not as easy to describe the moral responsibilities and obligations that follow," said Father Place, who was president and CEO of the Catholic Health Association from 1998 to 2005. "The resolution of a moral conundrum at the end of life is not easily resolved by simply applying an abstract principle," said Haas. "There are countless variables which have to be worked into the equation in each separate, individual case." The two were among the speakers at a daylong interdisciplinary conference titled "Reflections on the End of Life: Schiavo Plus One," co-sponsored by the Fordham Center on Religion and Culture and the Fordham Center for Ethics Education.

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