Category: Disability, Sickness & Suffering

The Moment of Choice: Recognizing Human Dignity in Difficult Circumstances
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The Moment of Choice: Recognizing Human Dignity in Difficult Circumstances

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by on Oct 14, 2013 in Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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In every country, at this very moment, women who have become pregnant — either because of decisions they made or as victims of assault through no fault of their own — are faced with making the choice of life or death for their child. Some of these women are financially stable, some are in financial […]

Pride and Postpartum Depression
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Pride and Postpartum Depression

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by on Oct 07, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Parenting
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My husband married a woman who had the ability to laugh things off, to be spontaneous, to work hard and get ‘er done. And then I got pregnant, had a baby, got pregnant, had a baby, and so on five times in a row. My five kids are aged 5, 4, 3, and 1 year […]

Who Do We Trust In?
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Who Do We Trust In?

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by on Oct 01, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Live in Christ, Men
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Like Mount Zion are they who trust in the LORD, unshakable, forever. — Psalm 125 Do you ever think about how much we trust every single day? For instance, every time you turn on your car and pull out of the driveway, you are trusting the people who assembled that car and the mechanic who […]

The New Love Affair with Eugenics
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The New Love Affair with Eugenics

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by on Sep 24, 2013 in Cloning, Embryo Research & Genetics, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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One of the modern zeitgeists that scares me the most is the growing love affair with eugenics among the elite. Whether the masses are aware of it or not, elite ideas trickle down and infect our subconscious. More and more dropping from Ivory Towers are notes that say, “Eugenics is good,” and “The problem last […]

Preying on the Disabled
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Preying on the Disabled

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by on Sep 16, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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I came across a headline that posed a bold idea: Killing MS Patients VIA Assisted Suicide to Harvest their Organs? As a theoretical question for provocative bioethicists to ponder or advocate, it may be interesting, but I live in the real world far from academia. The real world is being asked to answer that very […]

What Can We Do in the Face of Suffering?
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What Can We Do in the Face of Suffering?

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by on Sep 16, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Men
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I remember a couple of years ago seeing some TV reports about a heartbreaking situation in Somalia and Kenya that continue today. The commentator said, “We must warn you. Some of the images you are about to see are quite disturbing.” We proceed to see starving infants and children with distended tummies, crying children who […]

Learning from the Poor
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Learning from the Poor

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by on Sep 09, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Men
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During a conversation with my 23-year-old son, he told me that a lot of his friends like our new pope. This isn’t the measure of the greatness of the man, but it is good to see some of Pope Francis’ major themes resonating with the young. Among the most prominent of these themes, something that […]

Lament and Wait Quietly for the Lord
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Lament and Wait Quietly for the Lord

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by on Sep 05, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ
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Far too frequently we look around our lives and find so much going so wrong.   Sometimes we know what we can do about our problems, and sometimes we don’t.  But that’s where faith comes in.  Here’s what I mean: The sixth century before Christ was a time of tremendous pain for the Israelites.  The Temple […]

Disability, Service, and Stewardship
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Disability, Service, and Stewardship

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by on Sep 03, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, On the Job, Those in Need
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There’s a dangerous tendency in America today to view disabilities of various kinds as insuperable barriers to productive and loving service. There is often an implicit, and sometimes explicit, disrespect of a basic feature of human dignity in the treatment of those with disabilities as merely passive recipients of government aid, the objects of public […]

How Can I Forgive When I Can't Forget?
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How Can I Forgive When I Can’t Forget?

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by on Aug 26, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ
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While many people believe forgetting an injury is part of forgiveness, Fr. Justin Waltz, pastor of St. Leo’s Church in Minot, ND, suggested just the opposite. In fact, he stated that forgetting is not even possible. “The only type of forgetting I have heard of is stuffing,” he said during a retreat presentation and added, “The […]

Imposing Death With Quality Control Standards
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Imposing Death With Quality Control Standards

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by on Aug 20, 2013 in Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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We’ve all heard the “quality of life” argument applied to everything from an excuse for abortion to the reason posited to justify assisted suicide or some other form of euthanasia. Ongoing debates relating to various segments of Obama’s national health care law—the Affordable Care Act—challenge us to sort out and explain the problematic nature of using a slide rule […]

Making it Through the Storms
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Making it Through the Storms

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by on Aug 16, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ, Men
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Sometimes you see the storm coming from miles away. The sky darkens long in advance, the thunder roars loudly from a distance, the wind whips up and turns cool. You expect those storms and can plan around them a little, or at least plan for them. I don’t mind a good storm. You can enjoy […]

Providing Support Services for Life With Dignity
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Providing Support Services for Life With Dignity

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by on Aug 14, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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In my little corner of the world (Alberta, Canada) there is an issue raging about government cutbacks to support services for people with severe disabilities. Disabled Albertans feel threatened — and with good reason. Many of the support services that will be cut provide personal daily care that will directly impact the ability of disabled people to function, […]

The Measure of Humanity
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The Measure of Humanity

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by on Aug 07, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Featured
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Pope Benedict writes in Spe salvi, “The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer.” These words recently took on new meaning for me as I encountered the story of Edwarda O’Bara, who passed away at the age of 59 in late November. In January 1970 Edwarda slipped into […]

Catholic Insights Into Depression
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Catholic Insights Into Depression

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by on Aug 02, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Health & Fitness, On Books
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Being father to five young boys and maintaining both a university teaching post and a busy clinical practice would seem to be a prescription for physical and emotional meltdown. Yet in addition to all this, Catholic psychiatrist Dr. Aaron Kheriaty found time to write a very practical and much-needed book on depression. The Catholic Guide […]

Five Ways to Maintain Hope
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Five Ways to Maintain Hope

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by on Aug 02, 2013 in Columnists, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ
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Sadly, a priest recently committed suicide in the rectory a block down the street from my house. In my view, this priest (and anyone else who has committed suicide) must have lost all hope. To me, a person can only take his or her own life if steeped in utter hopelessness. That got me thinking […]

Intentional Dementia
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Intentional Dementia

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by on Aug 01, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Health & Fitness
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During Mother’s last few months, conversations were extremely difficult to follow because her mind seamlessly switched from one decade to another. Isaac Singer writes, “Sometimes she’d tangle one story with another and couldn’t find her way out” (In My Father’s Court). Within one statement, she would toggle between viewing me as a teenager in the […]

Extra Chromosome Silenced in Down Syndrome Cells
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Extra Chromosome Silenced in Down Syndrome Cells

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by on Jul 24, 2013 in Cloning, Embryo Research & Genetics, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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Amazing news was announced in the field of gene therapy last week. Scientists in Massachusetts have taken the cells of a person with Down Syndrome and have silenced the extra 21st chromosome in those cells. The Guardian has the story: Scientists have corrected the genetic fault that causes Down’s syndrome – albeit in isolated cells […]

Peter's Story
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Peter’s Story

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by on Jul 23, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Health & Fitness, Those in Need
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When I was 19 weeks pregnant, an ultrasound of my baby revealed markers for a condition called trisomy 18. We were offered amniocentesis, which we refused because we didn’t want to risk hurting our baby. We were told we would have more choices if we knew for sure. We said we would never abort our […]

"We Are Here!" How One Small Voice Can Make a Tremendous Impact!
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“We Are Here!” How One Small Voice Can Make a Tremendous Impact!

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by on Jul 11, 2013 in Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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In the Dr. Seuss classic “Horton Hears a Who,” Horton the elephant struggles and fights desperately to prove to his culture that there is a tiny hidden world (Whoville) filled with priceless individuals in an insignificant dust speck. The overwhelming majority believe Horton is crazy, and they try to destroy the dust speck with the […]

Sickness Seen Through the Lens of Christian Faith
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Sickness Seen Through the Lens of Christian Faith

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by on May 30, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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My wife was in the basement going through an old box filled with personal mementos and yellowed family photographs. She came up the stairs and put an old love letter in front me that I wrote to her in 1973 — the year we married. We were both very young. At one point in the […]

A Glimpse of Eden
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A Glimpse of Eden

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by on May 24, 2013 in Contraception & Abortion, Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured
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Genesis 3:22-23 “And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden.” In […]

Refusing to Suffer is Refusing to Live
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Refusing to Suffer is Refusing to Live

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by on May 22, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ
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After several years of rigorously defending and promoting the dignity and sanctity of all human life, it has been my observation that one of the supporting pillars of the culture of death (those kneejerk proponents of abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, cloning/ESCR) is a desire to avoid or alleviate human suffering at all cost. A woman […]

Desiring Human Acceptance
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Desiring Human Acceptance

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by on May 08, 2013 in Disability, Sickness & Suffering, Featured, Live in Christ, Those in Need
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On a number of occasions I have written about the loneliness of disability. I suppose readers might be apt to think loneliness is not unique to people with severe disabilities, and they are right. Most lonely people are not disabled. You don’t even need to be alone to be lonely; a person can be lonely in a crowded […]