Listed below are statements approved by the NCPD Board of Directors in a variety of issues.
Featured Resources
Ethics Committee Letter to OPTN/UNOS on Organ Donation regarding VCA Living Donors, 2014
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) modified the OPTN Final Rule to include VCAs among transplantable organs, effective July 3, 2014. At its June meeting, the OPTN Board adopted an interim policy, without public comment but with a September 1, 2015, sunset provision. The VCA Transplantation Committee has solicited public comment on a proposal to make such policy permanent. Both provisions would permit living VCA donations.
Opposing Maryland Assisted Suicide Bill of 2015, 2015
My name is Stephen L. Mikochik. On behalf of NCPD and the thousands of disabled Maryland Catholics it serves, I testify in opposition to S.B. 676, which, in legalizing assisted suicide, is an open invitation to patient abuse.
Opposing CA Assisted Suicide Bill, SB 128 7/2/2015
To Committee Chairs Stone and Bonta: My name is Stephen L. Mikochik. I am Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law at Temple University in Philadelphia and past Chair of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD). On behalf of NCPD and the thousands of disabled Catholics it serves, I would urge you, should it reach your desk, to veto Assembly Bill (AB) 15 that, in legalizing assisted suicide, is an open invitation to patient abuse.
Opposing MD SB 418 Bill on Assisted Suicide, 2016
"On behalf of both the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD), whose Ethics and Public Policy Committee I chair, as well as the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), as Director of Bioethics and Public Policy, I am writing to request that your Committee refuse to endorse LB 1056: Patient Choice at End of Life Act."
Board Statement on Inclusion, 2015
"Catholics with disabilities, like all Catholics, are incorporated in the Body of Christ as integral members. They, like any other member, belong to the faith community."
Ethics Committee letter points out OPTN/UNOS's own Ethics committee disagrees with proposed organ policy changes, 2013
"For the reasons ably set out in the National Catholic Bioethics Center’s June 20th letter, I urge the Board to reject the proposal as written. I will limit my remarks to the worst of the several flaws the proposal contains: Its authorization of organ solicitation before any decision to withdraw lifesupport is made."
Ethics Committee Comments on OPTN/UNOS Policy Plain Language Rewrite, 2013
"NCPD was established thirty years ago to implement the Pastoral Statement on People with Disabilities of the U.S. Catholic bishops. On behalf of NCPD and the fourteen million disabled Catholics it serves, I submit the following comments against the Policy Plain Language Rewrite (Rewrite) OPTN has proposed."
Letter to Governor Deal of Georgia Re: H.B. 1114: Homicide; Offering to Assist in Commision of Suicide; Repeal Certain Provisions April 9, 2012
"I am Chair of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD), which is an agency approved by the U.S. bishops to provide pastoral guidance for persons with disabilities. On behalf of NCPD, I urge you to not veto but to sign into law H.B. 1114, and thus help keep physician-assisted suicide and the threat it presents to disabled people from spreading."
Testimony in Opposition to Maryland House of Delegates Bill H.B. 449 2-21-2012
"I am a resident of Montgomery County, Maryland, and also a consultant with the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD), on whose behalf I am testifying today. NCPD wishes to express our grave reservations with H.B. 449, as well as with the proposed amendment offered by the Department of Legislative Services, and urge that it not be voted out of Committee in its original or amended form."
Letter to Massachusetts Legislature on "An Act Relative to Death with Dignity", H. 3884, 2012
There is no bright line between a disability considered terminal and one that is not. H.3884 offers lethal prescriptions to people whose conditions “will, within reasonable medical judgment, produce death within six months.”5 Such predictions are notoriously unreliable.6 Many people defy the odds and live on with their disabilities for many years.
Stop the Violation of the Right to Religious Liberty, 2012
Call to Action: Stop the Violation of the Right to Religious Liberty Last August, the U.S.
Comments Submitted by NCPD Board Chair to UNOS Re: Proposed Changes to the DCD Model Elements, 2012
Dr. Lake: I Chair the National Catholic Partnership on Disability (NCPD). NCPD was established thirty years ago to implement the Pastoral Statement on People with Disabilities of the U.S. Catholic bishops. On behalf of NCPD and the fourteen million Catholics with disabilities it serves, I urge UNOS to reject the proposal for changing the DCD Model Elements.
Ethics Committee Points Out Flaws In Latest Step in Organ Donation Proposed Changes, 2012
Dr. Lake: On behalf of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability, I offer the following comments on OPTN's "Plain Language Rewrite."
Letter to Maryland House of Delegates RE: Organ Donation Bill H.B 442, 2012
Dear Chairman Hammen:
Interest of People with Disabilities in Defeating Initiative Petition 1112, 2011
Initiative Petition 1112 will allow Massachusetts residents to ask their physicians for lethal medication to kill themselves. Presently, it authorizes only those with terminal diseases to make such request. Nevertheless, if adopted, it will create a real threat to all people with disabilities.- 1 of 2
- next ›