Health workers must argue for moral system, says leading U.S. doctor

Published: 2007-04-24

ROME (CNS) -- Health professionals need to band together to "argue for a morally valid and just" health care system, said a prominent U.S. Catholic physician. "We as health professionals have enormous moral power, and we're not using it. By that I mean we're not alerting our society to what's happening to patients and saying that we feel it needs to be improved," said Edmund Pellegrino, a longtime leader in developing bioethical standards based on Catholic values. He also is chairman of the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics. In an April 20 talk at the Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University in Rome, the 87-year-old former president of The Catholic University of America spoke on "Justice and Fairness in Health Care" as part of his weeklong series of lectures sponsored by the university's bioethics department. The number of Americans without health care coverage is on the rise; as of 2004 approximately 45.8 million people were uninsured, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

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