Opioid addiction has ravaged communities throughout the United States, claiming — and destroying — thousands of lives in the process.

Cities such as Philadelphia are looking to address the crisis by creating safe injection sites, supervised facilities in which users can self-inject illicit drugs and receive immediate treatment in case of an overdose.

Related: Read Archbishop Charles Chaput’s commentary on safe injection sites.

Safe injection sites: A dose of despair

In this podcast from the National Catholic Bioethics Center, addiction specialist Jeffrey Berger, M.D., and bioethicist Steven Bozza (director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for Life and Family) discuss the moral permissibility of safe injection sites. They evaluate the effectiveness of such facilities as part of the treatment continuum for opioid addiction, and consider the concept of a safe injection site in light of ethical principles and Catholic social teaching.

If you’re accessing this podcast on a mobile device and do not wish to download the SoundCloud app, simply click on the “Listen in browser” option.

Related: Read Steve Bozza’s commentary on safe injection sites.

Safe injection sites fail the medical ethics ‘sniff test’

Click here a full listing of podcasts from the National Catholic Bioethics Center.