Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services--December 2019

 

EB 1586--Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services--December 2019

The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, Peoria. (Photo by John Carroll)

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services are contained in a small pamphlet developed by the Committee on Doctrine of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Directives have been recommended for implementation by the diocesan bishops. In the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, the Bishop is Daniel Jenky. The document is excellent and easy to read.

From the Directives:

“The Ethical and Religious document was written to reaffirm the Church’s commitment to health care ministry and the distinctive Catholic identity of the Church’s institutional health care services. The purpose of the document is twofold: first, to reaffirm the ethical standards of behavior in health care that flow from the Church’s teaching about the dignity of the human person; second, to provide authoritative guidance on certain moral issues that face Catholic health care today. The Directives have been refined through an extensive process of consultation with bishops, theologians, sponsors, administrators, physicians, and other health care providers. The Directives promote and protect the truths of the Catholic faith as those truths are brought to bear on concrete issues in health care.”

Part One is entitled “The Social Responsibility of Catholic Health Care Services”. The secular leaders who control OSF on a day to day basis need to follow these beliefs and directives. Bishop Jenky needs to enforce them if he believes in them and their importance. OSF refused Haitian Hearts’ patients with full charges offered for some of their care and partial charges offered for others.

The Social Responsibility section is summarized as follows:

1. Catholic health care ministry is rooted in a commitment to promote and defend human dignity; this is the foundation of its concern to respect the sacredness of every human life from the moment of conception until death. The first right of the human person, the right to life, entails a right to the means for the proper development of life, such as adequate health care. (This would include Haitian children with heart problems.)

2. The biblical mandate to care for the poor requires us to express this in concrete action at all levels of Catholic health care. In Catholic institutions, particular attention should be given to the health care needs of the poor, the uninsured and the underinsured. (The bible in Keith Steffen’s office says the same thing regarding the mandate to care for the poor. Why did OSF cut out care for the poor from Haiti?)

3. Catholic health care ministry seeks to contribute to the common good. The common good is realized when economic, political, and social conditions ensure protection for the fundamental right of all individuals and enable all to fulfill their common purpose and reach their common goals. (OSF was going to let Willie Fortune die in Haiti if we had not found a hospital to change his pacemaker. How would OSF’s abandonment of Willie “contribute to the common good” and “ensure protection for all individuals”? And Jackson Jean-Baptiste did die in January 2006.)

The Directives that follow these statements are very straightforward. Directive #5 states:

“Catholic health care services must adopt these Directives as policy, require adherence to them within the institution as a condition for medical privileges and employment, and provide appropriate instruction regarding the Directives for administration, medical and nursing staff, and other personnel.”

I doubt that the Sisters are going to be able to do the above without help. Many are old and infirm. They have given their lives for their vocation. However, Bishop Jenky needs to support the Sisters and their Mission Statements even if he needs to take on the Administrators and OSF Corporate. The Directives need to be followed no how painful it is for the Bishop and for the Sisters. Providing appropriate guidance to leaders at OSF Corporate, Saint Francis Medical Center, and Children’s Hospital of Illinois to follow these Directives is Bishop Jenky’s responsibility.

 

John A. Carroll, MD

www.haitianhearts.org