The Roman Catholic Church says its doctrine that only men can be priests is infallible, which in Catholic teaching means that it is irreversible and without error. See a Nov. 19, 1995, New York Times story about the statement, issued with then-Pope John Paul II’s approval by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was headed […]

Read an undated explanation of why the Southern Baptist Convention’s Faith and Message was revised in 2000 to say, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” The explanation was written by the executive committee of the SBC, the largest Protestant denomination in […]

Read a discussion posted on FreeSpeechDebate.com about whether or not it was acceptable for Tom Cruise to threaten to sue South Park over an episode making fun of Scientology.

Dr. Mark Merkens is associate professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland and co-author of “The Oregon Health Plan and the Ethics of Care for Marginally Viable Newborns” in the 2001 Journal of Clinical Ethics.

Anita Joy Catlin is professor of nursing at Sonoma State University in California and a certified ethics consultant. She is author of “Thinking outside the box: Prenatal care and the call for a prenatal advance directive” in the April/June 2005 Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing and co-author of “End of Life in the NICU: A Study of Ventilator […]

Dr. Joseph A. Garcia-Prats is professor of pediatrics and professor of medical ethics in the Center for Ethics, Medicine and Public Issues at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He is also medical director of the Arnold J. Rudolph Memorial Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston.

Dr. Richard Gunderman is associate professor in the department of philosophy, vice chairman of radiology and director of pediatric radiology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. He is also co-author of “Ethics and the Limits of Neonatal Viability” in the August 2005 issue of the journal Radiology.

Jessica Wilen Berg is professor of law and bioethics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, where she has a joint appointment in the School of Law and the department of bioethics at the Medical School. Her writings include “Of Elephants and Embryos: A Proposed Framework for Legal Personhood,” forthcoming in Hastings Law Journal; and “You say person, […]

Dr. Stephen M. Modell is research area specialist and dissemination activities director at the Michigan Center for Genomics & Public Health and instructor in health management and policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He is the author of “Genetic and Reproductive Technologies in the Light of Religious Dialogue” in the March 2007 Zygon: Journal of […]