I thought it was fairly obvious that preventative measures can be ordinary means, but Daniel O’Connor tried to make the argument online to the contrary. This will include all his original post, and some back and forth. I’ll cover my […]
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A Stronger Moral Obligation to Vaccinate (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly)
Back in December, I published a summary of an academic article from the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly on why COVID vaccines were ordinary means. Not only did I summarize it, but after communicating briefly with one of the authors, I […]
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COVID Vaccines Are Ordinary Means & Thus Morally Obligatory (National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly)
Back in the spring, I posted two pieces in a series. In one, I argued that by a usual definition of “ordinary means,” widely (almost universally) recommended vaccines, including COVID vaccines, are ordinary means. In the second, I posted snippets […]
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Christian Anti-Vaxxers Damage Our Credibility
With all the different beliefs in history, there are good reasons that science first arose in Christianity. We do not divinize the natural forces but have a God who makes the whole of creation according to rationality. Priests have repeatedly […]
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Active Catholics Are the Most Vaccinated Religious Group
In the discourse about COVID vaccines online in Catholic circles, there was immense debate about the astronomically remote connection to abortion. In explicitly Catholic forums, this raged on for months. It seemed like almost 50% of Catholics were not vaccinated […]
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The Duty to Vaccinate in Catholic Social Teaching (2/2)
On Wednesday, I wrote about some moral theology principles on vaccines. I showed several points. Diseases are physical evils and vaccines thus relate to the most fundamental principles of moral theology. Vaccines are ordinary means so have a general obligation. […]
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Are Vaccines Ordinary or Extraordinary Care? (1/2)
Are vaccines ordinary or extraordinary care according to Catholic bioethics? Is vaccinating or not the default for Catholics?
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What Is Medical Testing? (A Response to Dr. Paul Casey)
Dr. Paul Casey wrote a piece arguing that very few medicines had medical testing on fetal cell lines, specifically HEK-293. The main issue with his argument is that he uses non-standard definitions of terms like medical testing and lying, and […]
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Catholic Anti-Vax Arguments & Reductio ad Absurdum (2/2)
Yesterday, I posted a piece explaining the structure and possible counterarguments to a reductio ad absurdum. If you haven’t read that, you might want to go and read it. Now we deal with a claim where a reductio ad absurdum […]
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A Catholic Religious Exemption for Being Muslim?
We need to distinguish between religious and conscience exceptions. They have been confused in the debate about exemptions from vaccine requirements. I think even a brief examination would find this equivocation faulty. This argument is that due to Catholic teaching […]
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