Does Catholic Health Care Have a Responsibility to Those Harmed by Pollution?

Publication Title

Journal of Catholic Social Thought

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2024

Keywords

oregon; psvmc; providence environmental stewardship; diversity

Abstract

Pollution results from humankind’s failure to be good stewards of creation. Guided by Catholic environmental bioethics, Catholic health care organizations have reduced their contribution to this pollution, but they also encounter its human cost. Catholic hospitals treat countless patients sickened by pollution, which most strongly impacts the poor and disenfranchised—those whom the Church expresses a preferential responsibility to care for, in part via the charity care that Catholic health care provides. The poor encounter another cost of pollution

Specialty

Biomedical Ethics

Specialty

Environmental Stewardship

DOI

10.5840/jcathsoc20242117

Share

COinS