Ethics on Call

Expert Panel Discussion on AI, Ethics, and the Future of Catholic Health Care

What happens when some of the nation’s leading voices in AI ethics, medicine, theology, and health care leadership come together to tackle one of the most urgent questions of our time? In this special episode of Ethics on Call, Dan moderates a powerful roundtable conversation recorded live at the conference: Artificial Intelligence, Authentic Mercy: Navigating AI Ethics in Catholic Health (Boston College | March 20–21, 2026) Joining the discussion: * Brian Anderson, MD — CEO, CHAI * Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF, Ph.D. — Villanova University * Aimee Milliken, Ph.D., RN, HEC-C — Boston College * Michael Pencina, Ph.D. — Chief AI Scientist, UnitedHealth Group * Daniel J. Roth, MD — EVP & COO, Trinity Health Dan and Tom also unpack several key takeaways from the conversation, including what Catholic healthcare can contribute to the national AI conversation. * How do we ensure AI advances human dignity? * What does authentic mercy look like in a digital age? * How should Catholic health systems lead responsibly? Many conference participants also endorsed a statement outlining general norms for AI use in Catholic health care. [https://site.chausa.org/theologyandethics/statements]

Healthcare Transcends Borders: Treating Immigrant Patients with Dignity

In this episode, Dan and Tom interview Dr. Mark Kuczewski about his recent work advocating for immigrant patients during the ongoing federal immigration enforcement surge. They discuss the following: * Why the Church has always affirmed the universal human dignity and rights of immigrants and migrants (regardless of legal status) * Ways for health professionals to advocate for immigrant patients * The need to revise hospitals' forensic patient policies, and * Why and how bioethicists are called to speak prophetically when immigrant patients are suffering. Dr. Kuczewski is the Fr. Michael English Professor of Medical Ethics and Director of the Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy at Loyola University Chicago, a past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), and a Fellow of the Hastings Center.  Below are links to the resources and publications referenced in this episode: * Sanctuary Doctoring Toolkit - https://www.luc.edu/stritch/bioethics/medicaleducation/sanctuarydoctor/ [https://www.luc.edu/stritch/bioethics/medicaleducation/sanctuarydoctor/] * Kuczewski M, Blair A, Nguyen T, Garcia-Izaguirre ML, Dober GJ, “When ICE Brings You the Patient . . . Hospitals Must Stop Victimizing Forensic Patients,” American Journal of Bioethics, Vol. 26, no. 3 (March 12, 2026): 4-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2026.2623853 [https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2026.2623853] * Maalouf M, Blair A, Kuczewski M, “Treating Fear: Steps to Help Your Immigrant Patients,” Health Progress, Vol. 106, no. 4 (2025): 9-14, 2025. https://www.chausa.org/news-and-publications/publications/health-progress/archives/fall-2025/treating-fear--steps-to-help-your-immigrant-patients [https://www.chausa.org/news-and-publications/publications/health-progress/archives/fall-2025/treating-fear--steps-to-help-your-immigrant-patients] * Catholic Health Association, USCCB, & Catholic Charities, Human Dignity is Not Dependent on a Person's Citizenship or Immigration Status (January 23, 2025): https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/human-dignity-not-dependent-persons-citizenship-or-immigration-status?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term= [https://www.usccb.org/news/2025/human-dignity-not-dependent-persons-citizenship-or-immigration-status?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=] * President Ronald Wilson Reagan, “Farewell Address to the Nation,” January 11, 1989. https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/farewell-address-nation [https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/farewell-address-nation] * Zeke Hernandez, The Truth About Immigration: Why Successful Societies Welcome Newcomers (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2024). https://zekehernandez.net/book/ [https://zekehernandez.net/book/]

From Promulgation to Practice: Leaders Reflect on the 7th Edition of the ERDs

Dan and Tom interview four leaders in Catholic health on the newly promulgated 7th edition of ERDs.  They discuss the history of the ERDs, how they are being implemented by ethicists, mission leaders, and health care professionals, and highlight the significance of several developments in the 7th edition. They also identify how these directives enable Catholic health care to promote the dignity and flourishing of vulnerable patients, such as women and mothers, persons experiencing gender dysphoria, and patients at the end of life. Our guests on this episode include: Fr Charlie Bouchard, OP, STD [https://www.ai.edu/academics/aor/faculty-experts-clone/charles-bouchard] (Catholic University of America) [https://www.ai.edu/academics/aor/faculty-experts-clone/charles-bouchard] Senior Fellow and adjunct Professor in Ethics at Aquinas Institute of Theology, St Louis, MO [https://www.ai.edu/academics/aor/faculty-experts-clone/charles-bouchard] Former VP for Theological Education, Ascension Health and Senior Director, Ethics and Sponsorship, CHA [https://www.ai.edu/academics/aor/faculty-experts-clone/charles-bouchard]   Amy Hertweck-Warner, DO, MA, HEC-C Director, Ethics Mercy St. Louis   Jenna Speckart, D.Be, MA (Theology) Vice President Mission & Ethics Operations, Mercy   Dr. Anitha Rayani, MD, Palliative Care [https://www.getcare.ssmhealth.com/find-a-doctor/doctor-details/anitha-rayani-md] SSM Health-St. Joseph’s Hospital, St. Charles, MO [https://www.getcare.ssmhealth.com/find-a-doctor/doctor-details/anitha-rayani-md]   Below is a link to the article we referred to in this episode: Ron Hamel, “100th Anniversary - The Ethical and Religious Directives: Looking Back to Move Forward,” Health Progress (2019) [https://www.chausa.org/news-and-publications/publications/health-progress/archives/november-december-2019/100th-anniversary---the-ethical-and-religious-directives-looking-back-to-move-forward]

Analysis and Commentary on the Newly Promulgated 7th Edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services

In November 2025, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to approve a new 7th Edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.  In this episode, Dan and Tom talk with Nathaniel Blanton Hibner, Ph.D., Senior Director of Ethics at the Catholic Health Association, who discusses the process by which this edition was developed over the past four years.   Following the interview, Dan and Tom provide their analysis of the new text, first exploring what they see as the four "under the radar" developments. They then turn to the four significant developments of the 7th edition, with special attention to the new directives on care for patients experiencing gender dysphoria.   Links to the documents and articles noted in the podcast can be found below: The Ethical and Religious Directors for Catholic Health Care Services [https://www.usccb.org/resources/ERDs-7th-ed-Approved_2025-11-12.pdf] Edmund D. Pellegrino, "The Commodification of Medical and Health Care: The Moral Consequences of a Paradigm Shift from a Professional to a Market Ethic," in Pellegrino's Clinical Bioethics: A Compendium, Edited by G. Kevin Donovan, David G. Miller, and Claudia Ruiz Sotomayor (Catholic University of America Press, 2025): 387 - 408. [https://www.cuapress.org/9780813237541/pellegrinos-clinical-bioethics/] National Institute on Aging, "What Are Palliative Care and Hospice Care?" (2021) [https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/hospice-and-palliative-care/what-are-palliative-care-and-hospice-care] Ron Hamel, "Ethics - Palliative Care - Stealth Euthanasia?", Health Progress (January-February 2014) [https://www.chausa.org/news-and-publications/publications/health-progress/archives/january-february-2014/ethics---palliative-care---stealth-euthanasia]

Organizational Ethics: Building and Sustaining Virtuous Health Care Ministries

Ethicists, clinicians, and administrators share a sincere commitment to building health care ministries that serve those in need and strengthen the social conditions that support healthy communities. But how can we achieve this without a clear account of what social structures and culture are, how they change, and—most importantly—how they can help us provide the best care, especially to those who are most poor and vulnerable? In this episode Dan and Tom begin by reviewing the ways that critical realist social theory has contributed to a Christian ethical analysis of social structures and culture.  Then they consider two recent articles that apply these insights to clinical and bioethics, and to building healthy hospital cultures. The articles and resources discussed in this episode can be found below: Finn, Daniel K. “Ch. 4: Social Structures,” in Moral Agency Within Social Structures and Culture: A Primer on Critical Realism for Christian Ethics. Edited by Daniel K. Finn. Georgetown University Press. 2020: 29-41. [https://press.georgetown.edu/Book/Moral-Agency-within-Social-Structures-and-Culture] Kolmes, Sara, Ariana Thompson-Lastad, Kevin Dirksen, Kayla Tabari, and Seth M. Holmes. “Incorporating Structural Competency into Clinical Ethics: Piloting New Bioethics Education.” Journal of Clinical Ethics, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2025): 158-166. https://doi.org/10.1086 /734776 [https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/734776?journalCode=jce] Miller, Ireland. “Building an Ethical Hospital Culture: Integrating Ethics into Organizational Frameworks in Healthcare.” Journal of Health Ethics & Administration, Vol. 11, No. 3 (2025): 14-24.  https://doi.org/10.22461/jhea.6.7164   [https://www.jheaonline.org/pdf/Miller_jhea.6.7164.pdf] “Case Studies in Social Medicine,” New England Journal of Medicine, Massachusetts Medical Society, https://www.nejm.org/case-studies-in-social-medicine.