Health Care

Article

Back to the Lab Again

… I’ve been to the lab so many times that it has started to feel like home. In the twelve years I’ve been coming, not much … degrees. You might imagine that the world’s drugs are tested in sterile, … might like: M. Anthony Mills on science and the culture-war …

By C. R. Calabria

August 6, 2026

Is Anti-Vaxx Really Anti-Science?

It’s easy to blame vaccine skepticism on ignorance or scientific misinformation. But what if we took time to listen to some Americans’ sincere fears about vaccines?

Article

Masks Off

Masking in both its physical and digital aspects is symptomatic of a culture losing the art of face-to-face encounter.

By Terence Sweeney

May 1, 2026

Article

The Dangers of Doctor Bot

AI touches on the deepest longing of professionals to be foolproof. But it cannot replace the judgment of a real doctor.

By Ronald W. Dworkin

January 19, 2026

Artificial Intelligence

Article

The Culture War Comes for Science

The Trump administration has exploited and exacerbated the problems besetting science. Our moment demands a new contract answerable to the scientific needs of American society.

By M. Anthony Mills

January 13, 2026

Article

Malice toward Vets

Between workforce slashing, service cuts, and culture wars, the Trump administration has severely hampered America's ability to care for its veterans.

By Miles Doyle

July 1, 2025

Article

The Anti-vaxxers Take Over

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he wouldn’t “take away anybody’s vaccines," but as secretary of HSS, he is steadily dismantling our national vaccine infrastructure.

By Regina Munch

June 26, 2025

Article

All Too Human

… there is nothing. That is its ‘banality.’” Carl Elliott’s new book doesn’t propose a … not about me,” but there is a lot about Carl Elliott in it, and a line toward the … Experimentation and the Price of Saying No Carl Elliott W. W. Norton $29.99

By Bernard G. Prusak

February 25, 2025

Article

A Sick System

Americans are suffering too much, dying too soon, and going broke in order to prop up a completely unnecessary but very profitable industry.

By The Editors

December 19, 2024

Article

Lifestyle Choice

Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn’s memoir is a testament to the depth of a daughter’s love—and an act of faith in our better human instincts.

By Brendan Ruberry

September 9, 2024

Article

One Year to Mourn

Should grief be conceptualized as a medical disorder? What are the likely consequences of treating it this way?

By Paul Lauritzen, Mathew A. Crawford

August 1, 2024

Article

A Different Phase

The Covid isolation guidelines may have changed, but many programs that proved effective at the height of the pandemic should remain in place.

By Miles Doyle

March 1, 2024

Article

Patients Over Profits

Reining in the pharmaceutical industry is an important step toward making health care more affordable for everyone.

By The Editors

September 24, 2023

Article

Preventable Deaths

It is much easier in this country to find a fentanyl dealer than to access essential addiction treatments.

By Dr. Jessica Gregg

August 3, 2023

Article

Conscience and Catholic Health Care

Those who want Catholic health-care institutions to remain substantively Catholic must articulate a more robust definition of pluralism and conscience rights.

By Jacqui Oesterblad

July 3, 2023

U.S. Catholicism

Article

The Pandemic Isn’t Over

When it comes to Covid, there is now a solid bipartisan consensus that ignorance is bliss.

By Matt Mazewski

May 27, 2023

How Hospitals Could Be

Is single-payer health care really feasible in America? For Texas physician Ricardo Nuila, the answer is an unqualified ‘yes.’

Article

Gorsuch Gets It Wrong

Neil Gorsuch’s position on vaccines and religious liberty is fundamentally confused.

By Bernard G. Prusak

April 25, 2023

Feature

End-of-Life Dreams

“In a high-tech, evidence-driven world of contemporary medicine, it was a dream that led a physician to conclude that my wife was dying. How was that possible?”

By Paul Lauritzen

April 24, 2023

Death and Dying

Feature

The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer

Can a racist also be a virtuous and great man? The case of Albert Schweitzer forces us to confront the question.

By Xan Smiley

February 14, 2023

Article

All a Matter of Perspective?

Can Catholic health care find a viable middle way between strident voices on both the Right and Left?

By Bernard G. Prusak

January 27, 2023

Article

Why They Call Us

When we talk about abortion in America, we must talk about the suffering, shame, and guilt caused by the belief that it’s wrong to have a baby when you’re poor.

By Eve Tushnet

September 24, 2022

Article

Making Pregnancy Safer

Pro-choice advocates tout the relative safety of abortion versus pregnancy. But more access to abortion doesn’t address the United States’ abysmal maternal care.

By Jessica Keating Floyd

August 29, 2022

Feature

An Antidote to Despair

Liberation theology shaped Paul Farmer’s quest to make medicine more human.

By Isaac Holeman

April 28, 2022

Death and Dying

Article

Remembering Paul Farmer

The late Paul Farmer, through his personal witness and Partners in Health organization, offered a vision of “the refashioning of our world.”

By Steve Reifenberg

March 3, 2022

Death and Dying

Foreign Affairs

Article

‘The Miracle of Everything’

Living with a rare heart condition led Gabriel Brownstein to chart the advances in coronary medicine over the centuries.

By Rand Richards Cooper

February 12, 2021

Article

Vaccine Delays

An uneven vaccine rollout reveals the price of failing to invest in public health.

By Katie Daniels

February 1, 2021

Article

COVID Fatigue

“We do what we are supposed to do, walk the stage, say our lines. But the reality is that, even if we hit our marks, many of our patients will not survive.”

By Ebtesam Attaya Islam

January 14, 2021

Death and Dying

Local People

Could rural America become a hotbed of progressive politics? Luke Mayville, co-founder of Reclaim Idaho, certainly thinks so.

Domestic Affairs

Article

Do Something Big

In Idaho, grassroots volunteers secured a landslide victory for Medicaid expansion, even in conservative rural counties.

By Luke Mayville

September 22, 2020

Domestic Affairs

Article

Why the Left Must Work with Liberals

Deep disagreements over politics are as old as the nation itself. As we approach the November election, we need to think carefully about how we got here.

By James T. Kloppenberg

September 3, 2020

Domestic Affairs

Higher Education

Article

Unwrapping Lazarus

For cystic fibrosis patients, recent medical breakthroughs have offered a new life: like Lazarus, they are unwrapping their bandages and re-entering the world.

By Roberto J. De La Noval

June 11, 2020

Death and Dying

Article

Quarantined in the U.K.

Shows of solidarity with the NHS are undercut by years of ill-advised budget cuts, and by a lack of appropriate care for essential workers.

By Nicole-Ann Lobo

April 21, 2020

Foreign Affairs

Article

‘Without Compassion, I Fear We Are Complicit’

Besides the federal government, Catholic Charities is the country’s largest social-safety-net provider. It’s now facilitating access to food and mental health care.

By John Gehring

April 6, 2020

U.S. Catholicism

Women in the Church

Article

Critical Needs

Catholic hospitals are already underfunded. With COVID-19 cases rising, they face an ethical dilemma: how to distribute limited resources in favor of the poor.

By Paul Moses

March 31, 2020

Article

All One Body

The Body of Christ includes immigrants, who deserve accessible health care—especially, though not only, in light of COVID-19.

By Paul Moses

March 23, 2020

Article

Giving Doctors a Say

Giving medical professionals some agency in end-of-life decisions can be consistent with church teaching. We just need to integrate the concept of futility.

By Michael Redinger

February 24, 2020

Death and Dying

End-of-life Issues

Article

The Irony of Opioids

The Sackler family is profiting by treating addictions to their own drugs—a darkly ironic indication of the extent of corporate greed and individual powerlessness.

By Kate Lucky

January 30, 2020

Domestic Affairs

Article

Making Ministry Whole

Ministerial Juridic Persons, mostly comprised of laypeople, have canonical authority for church ministries. That’s unprecedented, and potentially transformative.

By Fr. Charles Bouchard, OP

November 7, 2019

U.S. Catholicism

Article

The Way Love Works

I have been a hospice volunteer since 2009. I receive so much more than I give, and have learned that true love is always reciprocal.

By Linda Dickey

August 10, 2019

Death and Dying

Article

Another GOP Attack on Health Care

Democrats should shelve arguments about “Medicare for All,” defend Obamacare, and denounce conservatives’ eagerness to rip coverage from those who need it.

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

July 11, 2019

Article

The Death of a Mental Patient

My brother Robert, always in and out of treatment, was a gift. He taught me to accept my own frustrations, and to curb the envy of others I sometimes felt.

By Jay Neugeboren

June 27, 2019

Death and Dying

Article

Let Church Be Church Again

It is a challenging time, both for our nation and our church. But it can also be a graced moment, and an opportunity for healing.

By Carol Keehan, DC

November 27, 2018

Women in the Church

Article

Speed Up on Single Payer

Our first concern should be health care for all

By John Marty

January 29, 2018

Domestic Affairs

Continuing the Conversation

Article

The ‘What’s-In-It-for-Me’ Tax Bill

A one-two punch that will not only limit government’s ability to help those in need, but also hamper the vital work that nonprofits do

By Paul Moses

December 21, 2017

Domestic Affairs

Article

Slow Down on Single Payer

There’s a risk that Democrats will succumb to ideological groupthink

By J. Peter Nixon

November 21, 2017

Domestic Affairs

Article

A Tale of Two Cities’ Doctors

How the money-making imperative distorts health-care up and down the service spectrum

By Charles R. Morris

October 25, 2017

Domestic Affairs

Article

The Priority Is Still to Save Obamacare

People think Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy's “health care” proposal must be more sensible than other approaches to repeal the ACA. It’s not.

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

September 18, 2017

Article

Unpaid Bills

What happens when a nation’s public-health system is deliberately dismantled

By Jo McGowan

September 7, 2017

Foreign Affairs

Article

When Religion Is Prophetic

American nuns make clear that faith is something more than a cog in the status quo’s political machine.

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

July 31, 2017

U.S. Catholicism

Domestic Affairs

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