The Catholic Church’s teachings on ethical issues arising in healthcare delivery and biomedical science are distributed across a plethora of different places ranging from papal allocutions, encyclicals, instructions by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and guidance documents authored by various congregations of bishops. Furthermore, they are distributed throughout time ranging from, for example, the Didache (or teaching of the 12 apostles, circa 1st Century), to Pope Pius XII’s address in 1954 addressing ethical issues in transplantation, and onto the 2009 instruction entitled Dignitas personae. It is difficult for a wider audience to make sense of these sources on the various issues arising in healthcare delivery and scientific research, but the editors of A Catechism for Health Care have collated them in a way that makes them easier to understand

The purpose of this book is to present the teachings of the Catholic Church as they pertain to ethical issues arising in the healthcare and biomedical sciences. The premise of the project is that the Catholic Church’s teaching speaks in an accessible way to a wide range of people concerned about healthcare ethics. It is important to present these teachings concisely. The book is ordered around numerous questions concerning the most common practices in health care that have ethical dimensions. It then provides concise answers to these questions as are found in various magisterial Church documents. These answers are refreshingly clear and to the point.

Stephen Napier is associate professor of philosophy at Villanova University. John M. Travaline, MD, is professor of medicine at Temple University’s School of Medicine.