Bioethics from a Catholic Perspective
A short course with Dr. Joe Zalot
This course runs Tuesday evenings from 7:00-8:15 PM PDT / 10:00-11:15 PM ET. It will be taught online using Zoom on Tuesday evenings August 10, 17, 24, 31, and September 7, 14, and 21.
About Dr. Joe Zalot
Joe Zalot is a Staff Ethicist with the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. He has been with the NCBC since July 2017. Prior to the NCBC, he served as the Regional Director of Ethics and Spiritual Care for Mercy Health–Cincinnati from 2015-2017. He was an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Ethics at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati from 2004- 2009, and an Associate Professor (with tenure) from 2009-2015. He also served from 2016-2017 as a Lecturer at the Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati. Joe earned his Ph.D. from Marquette University in 2002. He has authored two books and various articles and book chapters, and has presented at academic conferences both domestically and internationally. He is also the founder of Dr. Z Travel, LLC, a faith-based travel company that offers educational and parish pilgrimage trips to Europe. Joe is married to his wife Susan (1994) and they have a daughter, Maria.
August 10: Vaccinations
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), “Note on the Morality of Using Some Anti-COVID-19 Vaccines,” December 21, 2020 ( link)
“NCBC Statement on COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates,” July 2, 2021 ( link)
Catholic Medical Association, “Catholic Medical Association Opposes Vaccine Mandates without Conscience and Religious Exemptions,” July 28, 2021 ( link)
August 17: End-of-Life Decision Making – “Do I have to do everything?”
Resources (notes to be provided)
• Ordinary and Extraordinary Means
• Do Not Resuscitate Orders
August 24: Medically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration
Resources
• Pope John Paul II, “Address to the Participants in the International Congress on Life-Sustaining
Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas” (2004)
• Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Responses to Certain Questions of the USCCB
Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration (2007)
August 31: Advance Directives and POLST
Resources (notes to be provided)
• “Durable Power of Attorney and Living Will” from NCBC’s Catholic Health Care Ethics
• “NCBC Guide to POLST” from Catholic Health Care Ethics
• NCBC’s Health Care Proxy and Advance Medical Directive forms
September 7: Brain Death and Organ/Tissue Donation
Resources
• Pope John Paul II, Address to the 18th International Congress of the Transplantation Society (2000)
• Ethical and Religious Directives, Directives 62-65
September 14: Palliative Care and Hospice
Resources
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- September 21: Physician-Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia
Resources
• Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, nos. 64-66 and 72-74 only (1995)
• Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Samaritanus bonus: “On the Care of Persons in the
Critical and Terminal Phases of Life,” (2020)
- September 21: Physician-Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia