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Charlotte Lozier Institute

Phone: 202-223-8073
Fax: 571-312-0544

2776 S. Arlington Mill Dr.
#803
Arlington, VA 22206

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Charlotte Lozier Institute

Phone: 202-223-8073
Fax: 571-312-0544

2776 S. Arlington Mill Dr.
#803
Arlington, VA 22206

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Scholar

Richard Doerflinger, M.A.

Associate Scholar

Richard M. Doerflinger is a Fellow with the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture and an Adjunct Fellow in Bioethics and Public Policy at the National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. He was formerly Associate Director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he worked for 36 years. Among his duties was the preparation of policy statements and congressional testimony on abortion, euthanasia, conscience rights in health care, embryo research, and other medical-moral issues for the bishops’ conference. He also serves on the Advisory Board to The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity, and is a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Mr. Doerflinger has testified before Congress, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, the National Institutes of Health, the President’s Council on Bioethics, and several state legislatures on the way public policy treats human life at its most vulnerable stages.  His writings on medical ethics and public policy include contributions to The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, The Hastings Center Report, Duquesne Law Review, Cell Proliferation, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, the Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine (Our Sunday Visitor Press 1997), the National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Human Life Review, The Public Discourse, and the American Journal of Bioethics. His monthly column “A More Human Society” is syndicated by Catholic News Service and published in many Catholic newspapers. He holds a BA degree and an MA in Divinity from the University of Chicago and conducted doctoral studies in Theology at that institution and the Catholic University of America.

In January 2009, Mr. Doerflinger became one of the first recipients of the Gerard Health Foundation’s “Life Prize,” honoring efforts to awaken the conscience of America to the sanctity of human life. In April 2011, he became the first recipient of the “Evangelium Vitae Medal,” awarded annually by the University of Notre Dame’s de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture “to honor individuals whose outstanding efforts have served to proclaim the Gospel of Life by steadfastly affirming and defending the sanctity of human life from its earliest stages.”

 

Research Authored

Life & the Law

A Fact-Free Campaign Against Parents and Unborn Children in Alabama

Recently, Alabama passed a new law that grants immunity from both civil and criminal liability to IVF clinics for destroying human embryos, without parents’ consent and for any reason. This came in the wake of the Alabama supreme court ruling that parents can file suit when, without their consent and against their interests, a medical facility causes the death one or more of their frozen embryos. In this On Point, Richard Doerflinger clarifies the facts of the case and Alabama law, as well as countering misinformation.

Life & the Law

The Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023: Attacking the Health and Freedom of Women

On March 8, 2023, Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced the latest version of the pro-abortion “Women’s Health Protection Act” (S. 701).

End of Life

Washington State: Expanding Death Without Dignity

On February 27, the Washington state senate decided to subject many more of its residents to the risk of being hastened toward death by drug overdose.

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End of Life

Lethal Non-Compliance with Washington’s “Death with Dignity Act”

Beginning with Oregon in 1997, ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized physician-assisted suicide (PAS) for patients said to have a terminal illness.

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Life & the Law

The Effort to Reinterpret EMTALA to Mandate Abortions

The Administration policy is unsupported by the language and history of EMTALA itself, and explicitly forbidden by other equally authoritative federal laws.

Maternal & Public Health

Politifact and Fiction on Abortion

The U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey has led abortion supporters to propose sweeping legislation, and to mislead Americans about pro-life legislation. One example is a claim, repeated by many news outlets, that state laws against abortion forbid effective treatment of women undergoing miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies. That claim has been rebutted again and again, but continues to appear in online news outlets.

Life & the Law

Lies, Damn Lies, and the Women’s Health Protection Act

The “Women’s Health Protection Act” (WHPA) has been circulating in Congress since 2013. That is the year Planned Parenthood announced it was moving away from the slogan “pro-choice.”

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End of Life

Assisted Suicide’s Slippery Slope in Action: Washington State May Drop “Safeguards” Against Abuse

Opponents of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) have long warned that there is a “slippery slope” from initially limited acceptance of the practice to a broader “right” to take the lives of the sick and elderly. PAS supporters have generally dismissed this claim as alarmist. In my home state of Washington, however, supporters are now embracing the claim, and urging lawmakers to ski down the slope.

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Life & the Law

The “Equality Act”: Threatening Life and Equality

Former vice-president Joseph Biden has made it clear that on becoming President, he hopes to advance his party’s stand on so-called “social issues” such as abortion and the LGBTQ agenda. His ability to do so will depend on whether he will be working with a Congress that shares his goals.

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Fetal Tissue, Stem Cells & Bioethics

Federal Bioethics Commissions and Bias Against the Unborn

In August, the Trump administration’s new Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board reviewed requests made to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for federally funded fetal tissue research. The Board recommended denying most of these requests.