Chicago, IL - March 20, 2008 - In solidarity with the Catholic Medical Association and all people of good will, the Catholic Medical Students Association wishes to express its concern regarding the November 7, 2007 Opinion of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' Committee on Ethics, "The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine."

The CMSA concurs with the CMA's judgment regarding the Opinion's flawed ethical analysis and unworkable and discriminatory recommendations that would impose sanctions on Catholic and other physicians who are-out of desire for the authentic good of the patient-morally opposed to abortion, contraception, and certain artificial reproductive technologies, and further calls for the rescinding of ACOG Committee Opinion No. 385.

From a student perspective, the Opinion portends a medical culture in which qualified applicants to residency programs in specialties whose scope includes reproductive medicine and women's health would be denied training based on their religious commitments or moral beliefs. Such intolerable discrimination would be unthinkable in contemporary society which places a high value on diversity. Moreover, it would seem that having a physician whose moral beliefs' comport with one's own would be valuable to the patient, who likewise rejects the liceity of contraception, abortion, and some artificial reproductive technologies. In fact, in such a case, we would argue, a physician could more effectively be an advocate of that patient's health and well-being.

Moreover, there is the concern that, were the Opinion's recommendations fully implemented, Catholic and other students with similar moral beliefs to that of the Catholic Church would be discouraged from pursuing specialties such as Family Practice, OB/GYN, Emergency Medicine, and the myriad other specialties which would be affected by such recommendations. This would deprive the profession of motivated individuals committed to serving patients.

Finally, as students conscious of the principles of Hippocratic medicine and endeavoring in our learning years to form our professional character in conformity with them, we cannot affirm any measure which would contradict the Hippocratic Oath's statement "I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patient, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous." While the help of professional bodies and "organized advocacy" groups, should be welcomed, a physician is an individual moral agent just as much as a patient, and must thereby be able to make moral decisions of his or her own accord, and not concede the province of this fundamental human ability to the work of a committee.

We are agreed with the ACOG that a physician's responsibility is to be an advocate for the patient. However, in no way does this principle contradict a firm commitment to upholding the principle of respect for life esteemed from the time of the Hippocratic Oath and even reaffirmed in 1948's Declaration of Geneva, which states "I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception, even under threat, I will not use my medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity."

On July 11, 2005, a new branch of the CMSA formed in Texas:

Greetings from Galveston Island, Texas! We are home to the newest chapter of the Catholic Medical Students' Association at the University of Texas Medical Branch. As the state's first medical school, it is fitting that we also are the first CMSA organization in Texas. Formed as an outreach of our local Newman Center, CMSA at UTMB seeks to foster education and fellowship among students studying medicine by hosting lunchtime lectures and evening programs. We are also co-sponsoring our local White Mass and various liturgical programs at churches in our community, as well as at the Galveston Newman Center. We have had extraordinary success in our recruitment efforts and are growing by leaps and bounds. We truly have been blessed.

     - Matthew Ramirez, MSII

Link: CMSA in Galveston, Texas

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Chicago, IL - On March 30, 2004, the Catholic Medical Students' Association, James Patrick McFadden writing, submitted a brief, amicus curiae, on behalf of Mr. Ernest Workman Jr. in his petition before the Benefits Review Board of the United States Department of Labor. The Catholic Medical Students' Association submitted its brief in response to the Benefits Review Board's order setting oral argument to consider whether the rulemaking record contains substantial evidence that pneumoconiosis is a progressive and latent disease.

The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, and the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago are all affiliated with the Black Lung Clinics Program at Cook County Hospital, an internationally acclaimed public teaching hospital where many miners are treated for pulmonary impairments that were caused or aggravated by their work-related exposure to respirable coal dust. The Catholic Medical Students believe in social justice, compassion, and ethics in the practice of medicine. For many working men and women, access to health care is a function of access to legal entitlements enabling them to purchase such care.

The Catholic Medical Students believe that the economy exists to promote the health and welfare of the individual, and thus wish to ensure that the nation's federal program for compensating coal miners suffering from work-related pulmonary disability is administered on the basis of sound medical data and evidence.

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