Tyler, Texas, Dec 5, 2008 / 03:20 am
Alvaro Corrada, the Bishop of Tyler, Texas, has issued another statement on Catholic medical ethics and the dignity of human life in response to revelations that Catholic hospitals were performing unethical sterilizations. According to Bishop Corrada, he is still waiting from Trinity Mother Francis Hospital to state that they are no longer performing sterilizations.
Bishop Corrada’s statement begins with a quotation from Isaiah, “Would that you might meet us doing right” (Is 64:4).
The bishop then described “two serious threats” to the authentic witness to the Gospel and human dignity in East Texas. As the first threat, he named the practice of direct sterilization in some national Catholic hospitals. The second threat, he said, was the proposed Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) which he said would “deny the freedom of conscience of health care workers and institutions to refrain from participating in medical procedures contrary to human dignity.”
He reminded Catholics of their duty to defend human dignity, an obligation which “cannot be altered by appeals to erroneous theological opinions or unjust legislation.”