Needed, an Ethics Audit of Catholic Sterilization Policies

Abstract

The author proposes an ethics audit of Catholic sterilization policies as a way to correct the disparity between the regnant moral directive prohibiting direct sterilization in Catholic health-care facilities and the policy and practice of allowing tubal ligations for “medical” or “therapeutic” purposes. The proposed four-step plan for the ethics audit involves dialogue and collaboration between U.S. bishops who have Catholic health-care facilities in their dioceses and the respective hospitals’ administration, sponsors, and medical staff. First, bishops clarify for Catholic hospital administrators, sponsors, and system leadership the moral distinction between a direct sterilization and one that is therapeutic or indirect. Second, bishops instruct hospital CEOs to abide by directive 53 of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services by providing only indirect sterilizations. Third, bishops encourage hospital leadership and medical/nursing staff to promote directive 53 in tandem with directive 52 and its call for providing natural family planning services within the hospital. And, fourth, bishops collaborate with the hospital or system leadership in conducting ongoing oversight of sterilization policy/procedures to insure that their Catholic health-care institutions practice durable compliance with directives 52 and 53.