The Christian Medical & Dental Associations and the Catholic Medical Association
Working Together to Safeguard the Field of Medicine
One of the benefits of Christian faith-based organizations like the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) and the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) collaborating is that doing so allows them to exemplify the unity in the Body of Christ that our Lord requested of the Father in John 17:20 and elsewhere. Christian organizations coming together to resist the increasing secularization of the world provides a testimony and witness for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Ninety years ago, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations began as a group of medical students meeting for Bible study in Chicago. Today, CMDA has approximately 20,000 members across the United States with a mission to educate, encourage, and equip Christian healthcare professionals to glorify God. CMDA believes that Christian healthcare professionals glorify God by following Christ, serving with excellence and compassion, caring for all people, and advancing biblical principles of healthcare within the Church and throughout the world. It is the vision of CMDA to bring the hope and healing of Christ to the world through healthcare professionals.
One of the several ways that CMDA seeks to advance Christian principles of healthcare is by advocating for biblical values within the public square. CMDA advocates for and against legislation at both the federal and state levels through staff and interested members. As part of our federal advocacy efforts, CMDA established a website called Freedom2Care, which highlights national issues impacting healthcare. Freedom2Care serves as a resource for Christian healthcare professionals across the United States by providing biblical analysis of legislative and judicial activities that intersect with healthcare and the rights of healthcare professionals.
One right of healthcare professionals coming under increasing attack is the ability to practice according to their God-given conscience. These attacks come in various forms, including being required to prescribe medication that causes chemical abortion, puberty-blocking agents and cross-sex hormones. Hospitals and healthcare professionals are currently fighting lawsuits for refusing to remove a normal uterus from women identifying as male.
These attacks on healthcare right of conscience have intensified recently in part because several major medical associations operating out of a secular mindset have purposely disparaged the right of physicians to practice medicine according to their conscience. These medical associations instead prioritize the autonomy of the patient over the conscience rights of the individual physician. This increasing emphasis on patient autonomy interferes with the normal patient-physician relationship and introduces opposition and even conflict where none existed previously.
For centuries, Hippocratic medicine has been the standard of excellence within the field, practiced from the perspective that physicians, through their extensive training, have the knowledge and experience to recommend what is best for their patient. The patient is then free to choose to accept or reject that recommendation. In the past, patients have typically sought out a different doctor if they rejected the recommendation. Only in the past decade or so has the priority of patient autonomy ascended to the point where the patient can now demand the physician prescribe certain medications or perform specific procedures, even when these go against the physician’s conscience. Medicine has entered an era in which physicians are treated more as technicians rather than experts in their field.
Reversing this trend will not be easy. Because major medical associations have contributed and even encouraged the ascendancy of patient autonomy over the conscience rights of healthcare professionals, protecting conscience rights will require the collaboration of medical associations that prioritize the conscience in the practice of medicine. This need to protect conscience rights within medicine is one of several reasons that the CMDA has been honored to align our efforts with the Catholic Medical Association.
Combining the membership totals of several organizations increases the impact of joint advocacy efforts. Members of the associations can witness the commitment of their leadership to join forces with others to protect the rights of their members. Further, each group can gain wisdom from the past experiences of other organizations, increasing the effectiveness of future joint efforts. It also allows cross-organizational encouragement, edification, and inspiration.
For us within faith-based associations, we acknowledge the Apostle Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 that our Lord has gifted each of us differently and placed those with diverse gifts in our separate organizations. We can use these unique God-given gifts across organizational boundaries to enhance our missions and visions. By doing so, we are far more likely to achieve the goal that the Lord has laid out for us.
The High Priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus found in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John reveals the tremendous priority our Lord places on unity within the Body of Christ. This prayer allows us to know that He is pleased with this new alliance between the Catholic Medical Association and the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. May His Spirit equip and empower us to bring Him the glory and honor He deserves.
Jeffrey J. Barrows, DO, MA (Ethics), serves as Senior Vice President of Bioethics and Public Policy for Christian Medical & Dental Associations. Dr. Barrows is an obstetrician/gynecologist, author, educator, medical ethicist and speaker.