The Dr. John Patrick Bioethics Column: Imposed Order

“Go and clean your room!”

Now, is that likely to get immediate and rueful compliance? Probably not, yet we cannot live without a modicum of order. But order divorced from a richer framework can become a devastating obsession. As is inevitable, if we are made in the image of God, our bristling response to anyone telling us what to do meets an inner reality that we know when the command is justified. We are not mere animals responding to innate instincts. We do not even arrive as an empty slate but as rational beings with moral knowledge, but so often we are unable to respond appropriately and very, very unlikely to be grateful that we are made with moral knowledge. Blessed are the wounds of a friend, but he’s no friend of mine at the moment of conviction. Ah, the human condition is not compatible with Utopian dreams.

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Alliance Defending Freedom Brief

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“Religious groups need not apply.” That is how the University of Iowa has interpreted and applied its paradoxically named “Human Rights Policy” since 2017. That Policy is why the University is now subject to four injunctions that it has brazenly ignored.

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CMDA Court Cases: Good News and Bad News

This month’s blog provides updates on two Christian Medical & Dental Associations federal lawsuits. The following case updates are information and help for healthcare professionals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of their faith and conscience.

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Alabama Amici Curiae Against Late Term Abortions

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The State’s interest in safeguarding maternal health is particularly compelling when abortions are contemplated or performed later in pregnancy. That interest is implicated in so-called “dismemberment” abortions, a procedure that can take place only after the first trimester when the unborn child has limbs and organs to dismember.

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