Global Health Inequities Addressed

Message of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Participants in the 32nd International Conference on the "Addressing Global Health Inequalities. In attendance at the Dicastery meeting were NACN-USA members: Marylee Meehan, RN, MA, NACN President (1996-1998), CICIAMS President Emeritus and Member of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Care Workers (2011-2017); Dr. Patricia Sayers, DNP, RN, CICIAMS United Nations Representative; Maria Arvonio, BSN, MA(HCE), RN, Northeast Regional Director and Ellen Gianoli, BSN, PHN, RN, Pacific Regional Director. Read the full message here. XXXII International Conference, 16-18 November [...]

Catholic Nurses Weigh In – HHS Strategic Plan

HHS DRAFT Strategic Plan FY 2018-2022 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) solicited input to the HHS DRAFT Strategic Plan FY 2018-2022 with this message.  Comments are due by October 27, 2017. Carolyn Laabs, PhD, MA, FNP-BC, RNChair, Ethics & Spirituality Committee Thank you Dr. Carolyn Laabs, PhD, MA, FNP-BC, RN, Chair, Ethics and Spirituality Committee for your excellent work drafting the NACN-USA comments to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) draft Strategic Plan. 10/23/2017

World Sight Day 2017

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Prefect for the Dicastery from Promoting Integral Human Development, message on October 12, 2017 for the 30th Annual World Sight Day. Read full message here. "The celebration of the 30th World Sight Day, promoted by the World Health Organisation, the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness and the World Blind Union, which takes place on 12 October 2017, is for me an opportunity to address a fraternal and cordial greeting to all those in the world who are engaged in the fight against blindness."

Catholic Nurses Comments to ANA

NACN-USA Comments regarding the draft ANA Position Statement "A Call to Action: Cultivating Moral Resilience and A Culture of Ethical Practice" The ANA received comment on its draft revision on their position on the Cultivating Moral Resilience and A Culture of Ethical Practice. Carolyn Laabs, PhD, MA, FNP-BC, RNChair, Ethics & Spirituality Committee Thank you Carolyn Laabs, PhD, MA, FNP-BC, RN (Chair) and the Ethics and Spirituality Committee for formulating our comments. Read the NACN-USA comments on the ANA Position on Cultivating Moral Resilience and A Culture of [...]

Passage of Conscience Protection Act of 2017

NACN-USA Joins the USCCB and 32 other Organizations in a Joint Letter to Congress to Urge the Passage of Conscience Protection Act of 2017 The National Association of Catholic Nurses, U.S.A. joined the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and thirty-two other major pro-life, religious, and health care organizations on September 6 urging the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to pass the Conscience Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 644/S. 301). Signatories include numerous medical groups representing tens of thousands of health care professionals who object to abortion and are [...]

Petition to Supreme Court to End Surrogacy Contracts

NACN-USA petitions US Supreme Court to End Surrogacy Contracts which Treat the Child as a Commodity Similar to Human Trafficking The National Association of Catholic Nurses, U.S.A. has joined other organizations, respectful of human life and the dignity of human procreation, in filing a friend of the court (Amicus) brief to the US Supreme Court demonstrating the detrimental effects on the child, and the vulnerable gestational mother, of Surrogacy Contracts. The goal is to have such contracts declared unconstitutional. Read Amicus brief

UN to Exclude Right to Life of Unborn

United Nations Human Rights Committee proposes to exclude the Unborn from a Right to Life The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UN HRC) has composed a draft of a General Comment to Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  Article 6 addresses the Right to Life. The UN HRC is inviting comments on this draft.  A major concern of this draft is that it clearly excludes the unborn from a right to life and, thus, imposes a worldwide right to abortion. Read the UN-HRC Draft Comments [...]

Opposing Assisted Suicide in AMA

NACN-USA Urges AMA not to change their policy of opposition to assisted suicide Carolyn Laabs, PhD, MA, FNP-BC, RNChair, Ethics & Spirituality Committee Carolyn Laabs, PhD, MA, FNP-BC, RN Chair, Ethics & Spirituality Committee In June 2016, at the annual meeting, the 540 members of the American Medical Association (AMA) house of delegates, representing all facets of the house of medicine, voted to ask the board of trustees to study the issue of physician assisted suicide. The board has referred the item to the AMA Council on Ethical [...]

CICIAMS Ethics Committee News

Dr. Marie T. Hilliard, MS, MA, JCL, PhD, RN Chair, CICIAMS Ethics Committee A Catholic health care worker has a unique vocational call. Among all the functions carried out on behalf of our ministry, for which each of us has been commissioned by our baptism, the most important vocational call of this ministry is that of accompaniment. Pope Francis often has spoken of this obligation. When speaking to the bishops of Brazil while in Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day in 2013, Pope Francis [addressing the plight of refugees] [...]

2017-07-10T00:00:00-04:00July 10, 2017|Educational Programs, In The News, News, Resources|

Life of Charlie Gard

The NACN-USA Shares the Concerns of The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) for Charlie Gard and His Parents NCBC Statement on the Charlie Gard Case The NCBC statement reminds us to look to the teachings of the Catholic Church for guidance. This is excellent advice. They can be found, for example, in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services and in papal documents such as Evangelium Vitae, as well as in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. As the NCBC states, cases that rely on media reports, [...]

2017-07-08T00:00:00-04:00July 8, 2017|In The News, News, Patient Advocacy, Resources|
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