The Point of Medicine
The following articles fall under this category of content within The Point of Medicine.
Rationality or Reasonableness as the Methodology of Ethical Medicine
Only recently has British academic and ethicist Oliver O’Donovan made me see how different these two concepts are, despite the same purpose of providing guidance for peaceful living. Behavioral norms are common to all societies, and once established they resist change very effectively for long periods of time.
Where There is Despair, Let Me Bring Hope: Assisted Suicide, the Moral Dissociation Curve and Compassionate Love
I suspect several of those reading this essay have had patients like the one described. How are we to care for this suffering person? Do we acquiesce to his request if we’re in a state where assisted suicide is legal? As a medical culture and a society, we are at a crossroads as to how we will care for the aging and infirm populations of our graying nation.
What’s Your CMDA Story?
When you become a CMDA Lifetime Member, you make a lifetime investment in bringing the hope and healing of Christ to the world plus make a lifetime commitment to the ministry of CMDA. It’s truly a lifeline for a lifetime. It also means no annual dues payments! Your one-time lifetime membership investment eliminates the need for annual dues payments for membership renewal.
Medicine in God’s Kingdom
Evangelical Christianity has never had difficulty understanding how a Christian healthcare professional might be able to speak a message of the truth and hope found in the salvation offered by Jesus in the context of a hurting patient or her family. Our theological framework makes it easy to understand why God would care about medicine that leads to evangelism.
Like Mother, Like Daughter: Passing the Torch
You ask how I came to choose medicine. I guess I’d have to say it chose me. That is, I was 12 years old when I first heard and responded to the good news of salvation through Jesus, and simultaneously, in some mysterious way, I knew I was supposed to be a doctor. I had never considered medicine before I became a Christian, and afterward I never considered anything else.
The Disappearance of Ethics
This article is an excerpt transcribed from an interview recorded for a CMDA Matters podcast episode released in September 2024 with CMDA CEO Mike Chupp, MD, FACS; CMDA Senior Vice President of Bioethics and Public Policy Jeff Barrows, DO, MA (Ethics); and Stephen Grcevich, MD. During the conversation, they discussed mental health and the church, as well as how mental health relates to gender and identity. To listen to the full episode, visit cmda.org/cmdamatters.
Mental Health and The Church
This article is an excerpt transcribed from an interview recorded for a CMDA Matters podcast episode released in September 2024 with CMDA CEO Mike Chupp, MD, FACS; CMDA Senior Vice President of Bioethics and Public Policy Jeff Barrows, DO, MA (Ethics); and Stephen Grcevich, MD. During the conversation, they discussed mental health and the church, as well as how mental health relates to gender and identity. To listen to the full episode, visit cmda.org/cmdamatters.
Opioid and Substance Use Disorder Identification & Treatment
Addiction has devastated the United States. As a healthcare professional, you’ve almost certainly seen its impact upon your patients and their families. As a community member, parent or friend, you’ve seen it in your town, on your streets and in your schools.
Preach, Teach and Heal: Medical Education as a Mission
Jesus gave His disciples instructions to include preaching, teaching and healing as key parts of their work and mission. Christian mission hospitals are excellent sources of providing witness and healing.
The Corporatization of Healthcare
Instead of opening my own practice, or even joining an existing physician-owned medical group, I took a job in a new practice owned by our local hospital, so I could be free of the administrative demands of running a business.
2024 Letter from the President – Staying in the Game
Sometimes I feel like Moses—content to play it safe and take care of a few sheep after experiencing significant ups and downs of life, yet the burning bush keeps calling me.
When Caring for The Unbelieving Terminally Ill Patient
Over my 20 years as a hospital medicine physician in one of the least churched areas in the country in San Francisco, I have cared for several patients who are terminally ill. Though such duty is never a happy one, spiritually I found it hardest to know how a Christian physician can best care for the terminally ill unbelievers.
Protecting the Vulnerable—No Matter What
On Tuesday, March 26, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in U.S. Food & Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. This was the first time CMDA was a named party in a U.S. Supreme Court case, a monumental and historic moment in CMDA’s ongoing advocacy work to protect the vulnerable and protect the conscience freedoms of our members—no matter what.
Ethics as a Condition of a Functional Society
There can be no ethics in a rigorous Darwinian world; instead, it comes down to a struggle with your neighbor to pass on your genes, rather than those of your neighbor, to the next generation. Therefore, there is no rational basis for patriotism, nor for noble acts of self-sacrifice, despite the desperate attempts of true believers to produce a theory of group altruism.
Grasping The Sword
My father played a major role in my own walk with Christ and spiritual growth during my formative years, even as I experienced medical school and residency training. He constantly encouraged me to incorporate the spiritual disciplines of scripture memory and meditation in my life.
A Simple Way to Memorize Scripture
You, dear reader, whether radiologist, pediatric nurse or orthodontist, have devoted a significant portion of your life to memorization. Even more so, you have proven yourself to be no mere show pony when it comes to fact retention and recall.
What Foundation Do Ideas of Ethics Have if Darwin is Right?
Charles Darwin’s great idea was that biological change could be endless if small, beneficial, naturally occurring variations could be selectively preserved and grow because of initially small survival advantages. He provided no theory of beginnings, only of process, which did not concern him too much because Aristotle’s belief in the eternity of matter had not been disproved. Furthermore, micro-evolution occurs all the time as Darwin describes so beautifully in the first chapter of On the Origin of Species.
Theology of Mythology: Of God and gods, Angels and Demons
The people of ancient Palestine in Israel and Judea saw angels in anthropomorphic form, and they encountered demons inhabiting humans and animals. The angels (or even the Trinity) could eat at their table, unlock gates and move stones.
What Does it Mean to Be Human?
This article is an excerpt transcribed from an interview recorded for a CMDA Matters podcast episode released in November 2023 with CMDA CEO Mike Chupp, MD, FACS; CMDA Senior Vice President of Bioethics and Public Policy Jeff Barrows, DO, MA (Ethics); and Professor John Wyatt. During the conversation, they discussed what it means to be human in the age of artificial intelligence (AI), especially how it relates to healthcare. To listen to the full episode, visit cmda.org/cmdamatters.
Pursuing Truth
What is the most extravagant meal you have ever had? Mine was a lavish Christmas day banquet after scuba diving on Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef. If you are a “foodie,” you will remember certain amazing meals.
Live as Children of The Light
Perhaps the biggest problem for young people today is deciding what to believe and therefore not knowing how to live. My heart aches for them, including some of my grandchildren. By the same token I am deeply moved to see those who have the wisdom to see the truth through the mists of deceit which envelop our culture.
Going on Mission Without Leaving Home
A high number of CMDA members want to go on or have served on an international mission trip. Why? Hopefully, not to just see another country, but to bring the love and message of Jesus to those who don’t know Him. Do we need to leave home to do this?
On The Frontlines for The Battle of Truth
I had the privilege of hosting author and speaker Rosaria Butterfield several weeks ago on our weekly podcast, CMDA Matters. Her new book, The Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, is a must read if you or a family member are struggling with the deceptions of LGBTQ-ism or radical feminism, or if you are pursuing
A Contemporary Examination of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus
How certain are we that Jesus died on the cross? Could His resurrection have been a hoax? These are critical issues to the Christian faith. The apostle Paul admonished the Corinthian church, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17, ESV).
Why Are We Suing the FDA?
If you’ve been paying attention to the news the last several months, you’ve likely heard about a lawsuit entitled AHM vs. FDA in which a group of prolife healthcare professionals is suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over removal of safety standards for the abortion drug mifepristone. The lawsuit was in the news again in December 2023 because the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. That group of prolife healthcare professionals includes CMDA. AHM stands for the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, and CMDA is one of five founding members of AHM, along with the Catholic Medical Association (CMA), the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) and the Coptic Medical Association of North America (CMANA).
Organized Medicine and the Response to Dobbs: Seeking Crucial and Constructive Conversations
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a landmark decision in which the court held that the U.S. Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.[1] A number of medical professional organizations responded to the decision with public statements. These responses were framed around themes including affirmation of patient autonomy, protection of the doctor-patient relationship, preservation of abortion experience in the training environment and protection of disparately affected populations.
Doctors as gods (and What to Do About It)
A group of colleagues and myself met recently to discuss episode 16 of CMDA’s Faith Prescriptions video series at a Christian clinic in Yorktown, Virginia. Episode leader Dr. Farr Curlin states regarding the practice of medicine, “We should make use of it, it’s a gift of God, but don’t put our hope in it, as if it is the physician who saves.”
Volunteering: It’s a Lifestyle
When you first begin considering the idea of volunteering, the simple thought might be overwhelming for a busy healthcare professional who’s trying to balance obligations at work, at home, at church, in the clinic, on campus and across a host of other areas. It’s no surprise that many of us in healthcare would steer far away from volunteering because there are just not enough hours in the day, not to mention enough margin in our schedules.
Commit and Engage – Letter from the President
I came to know Christ my first week in college at University of California, Davis (UC Davis). I wasn’t in a bad place or even seeking out spiritual fulfillment, but I was intrigued by my next-door dorm neighbor who was definitely high on something. It happened to be Jesus.
21st Century Savagery and Hamas: How Do We Understand Evil?
The savagery of Hamas in Israel has been on everyone’s mind in recent weeks. Most political leaders, including respected Saudi leaders, have expressed their horror at what was done. The killing of civilians, including women and children, plus the mutilation and degradation of dead bodies, is impossible to defend. The depravity of Hamas fighters is undeniable.
Psychiatric Insights for Treating Detransitioners: Equipping Healthcare Professionals
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that systems tend toward maximum entropy, disorganization or chaos. Since 1950, society’s transition into postmodernism—where relativism replaces an agreed upon series of absolutes and truth—marked a pivot point accelerating chaos. When God’s truth is ignored, Satan and the world’s small lies gain traction and, if not corrected, accelerate to absurdity level. Over the last 30 years, growing absurdities about how sex/gender are determined led to an exponential increase of atrocities in the form of “voluntary and willful” chemical upheaval, surgical castration, sterilization and mutilation destroying not just young healthy bodies, but also severely damaging the associated minds and spirits.
The Gift of Redemption
Over time, we began fighting about everything. We once believed we had so much in common, but we concluded we had nothing in common at all. Our fights would last days, sometimes turning into weeks and months.
CMDA Ethics Statement: Disagreement Among Christians on Bioethical Issues
Throughout the history of the church, there have been times when Christians have disagreed with one another in the pursuit of truth. The causes for this are many. Human knowledge is limited, and sometimes sources of knowledge can be interpreted differently.
The Importance of Trust—Not Something Created by Taking Courses in Ethics
If we attempt to write a list of the people we really trust and then try to work out why we trust them, it is clearly not explained by level of education, wealth, privilege or oppression.
Healthcare Response to Human Trafficking
The passage of Scripture that cemented my love for the Lord, and certainly helped me understand His love for us, is found in Luke 4:18. Reading from a passage originally found in Isaiah, Jesus stands in the synagogue and declares, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised” (KJV). It also served as a roadmap for the rest of my life, and I believe it is a roadmap for us all.
A Bearded Child, a Djembe and Faith
These last few months have squeezed our family like a grape. We have six kids aged eight and under—including infant twins, Ford and Eleanor, who joined our family in summer 2022. We are also about to move the whole Morris clan to Papua New Guinea in 2023 to serve as healthcare missionaries. I am sure you can imagine that our lives are as calm as a clam.
Unity Among the Members of Christ; Letter from the President
Christianity is a team sport. As team players, we need to get on the same page of the playbook so we can work in a coordinated effort to accomplish the goal of winning the lost and glorifying God in our lives and in our organization.
Don’t Use Ice Picks for Brain Surgery
The first time I ever heard of a lobotomy was in the early 1980s. I was a medical student, but I didn’t learn about it in class. Instead, I was in a darkened room with a bunch of other family members, watching a family home movie filmed 30 years earlier.
A Letter to Christian Physicians
Jonathan Clemens, PA
Disciples in Dentistry
When we meet someone new, one of the first questions we often ask is, “What do you do?” What we do is often the thing that largely defines us in broad strokes or gives us our identity.
Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Healthcare
Moral distress and moral injury are relatively new terms, but the problems they reflect are ancient. They address the need to face moral challenges with the integrity of an undivided heart.
Advocating the Justice Priorities of Jesus
In 2021 the CMDA Board of Trustees assigned nine strategic initiatives to the staff of CMDA for completion over a three-year period. One of the two initiatives placed under the advocacy was to align its advocacy with policies where Jesus has the greatest concern.
Who Holds the Judges Accountable or Can We Be Good Without God?
On November 24, 2022, the National Post reported that one in six women in Canada have had an abortion, and most of them think they made the right choice and therefore do not need to repent. A mere 10 percent regret their abortion. If Christianity is true, then everyone needs the gift of repentance.
Joy for the Journey
On my first day of service with CMDA in 2016, I attended the annual Healthcare Missions Leadership Summit. We were welcomed by Dr. Joshua Bogunjoko, the International Director of Sudan Interior Mission (SIM), who challenged attendees to carefully monitor their joy levels in ministry.
Save and Support Lives with Abortion Pill Reversal
Rebecca had eight months to go before finishing nursing school and was in an unhealthy relationship when she found out she was pregnant. She had no car and little income, and she certainly did not feel ready to have a baby.
The Season of Light Around the World
As the trappings of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons emerge around us in North America, things look and feel quite different for our colleagues serving around the world. For cross-cultural missionaries serving far from home, this time of year is complicated.
Healing from the Violence of Busyness: Five Biblical and Theological Reflections on Time and Work
When a medical code alert went off, my team took the stairs and not the elevators to save us precious seconds in the resuscitation. A “good” intern, I learned, gets their notes done as soon as possible.
Your Body Will Be Whole: Meditations on Heaven
During my surgical training, I helped care for an aging professor who bemoaned his declining health. His mind still moved in academic circles, pondering the high points of chemistry and physics, but arthritis had so fused the bones in his neck that he couldn’t nestle into a pillow anymore.
A Time to EMBRACE Recovery
As those called to the healing profession, we have all lived and practiced through old and unprecedented new challenges in our careers. We can all agree the last few years have surely been unlike any we have ever experienced before in our lives.
God Sightings
Sent home, shut in isolation, studying in our bedrooms, trying to survive our first year of medical school, and we weren’t even at school! When the four of us entered medical school in the Detroit, Michigan area in fall of 2020, it certainly trumped any expectations we had.
Staying Connected During School When Chaos and Isolation Abound
Sent home, shut in isolation, studying in our bedrooms, trying to survive our first year of medical school, and we weren’t even at school! When the four of us entered medical school in the Detroit, Michigan area in fall of 2020, it certainly trumped any expectations we had.
When Our Patients Pray for Us
As a Christian who’s been practicing periodontics for 29 years, I’ve had numerous opportunities to share my faith and pray with my patients. A number of my patients have expressed their appreciation for having a fellow Christian responsible for their care.
Resilience in the Face of Personal and Organizational Adversity
Try as we may, adversity is unavoidable. Often unexpected, hardship comes into our lives in a variety of forms and levels—a cancer diagnosis, a harsh public criticism, a mistake or accident with a detrimental outcome, an economic downturn or even a pandemic or natural disaster.
The Landmark Decision: Finally Granting Life to the Pre-born
In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court finally corrected the debacle of the Roe v. Wade decision, ending 49 years of federal judicial fiat allowing legal abortion in all 50 states.
All You Need is F.A.I.T.H. – Mentoring
My freshman year of college brought a multitude of surprises. Certainly, there was the increased study load and the idea that I alone had to manage myself, my time and my schedule, yet the biggest surprise I experienced was when the God of the universe radically changed my life and the trajectory of my future.
CMDA Ethics Statement on Transgender Identification
In this ethical statement, CMDA provides biblical, biological, social, and medical support for an understanding of gender dysphoria that aligns with Scripture and includes an extensive glossary of terms. While gender dysphoria is not addressed directly in the Bible, Christians affirm the biblical understanding that humankind was created male and female. After detailing the biological, social, and medical evidence, recommendations are made for the Christian community in general as well as for Christian healthcare professionals regarding their interactions with individuals suffering from gender dysphoria. The statement concludes with recommendations that Christian healthcare professionals should not refuse care to patients with gender dysphoria but should also not be forced to assist patients in gender transition.
The Dr. John Patrick Bioethics Column: Medicine in Times of Public Crisis
Public health and traditional medicine have a serious logical conflict. Public policy decisions must be made in utilitarian terms, unlike medicine, for populations and not individuals. Decisions are made according to which action saves the most lives. All public health policies are tradeoffs in the context of having incomplete data and finite resources. In contrast, patient-based medicine asks, “What is best for this patient?”
First Fruits and Capstone
The healthcare mission field stands at an important crossroads. Around the world, opportunities abound for fruitful ministry through healthcare missions. Healthcare professionals are desperately needed, and they can serve in places non-medical missionaries can’t serve. All too often, needs and opportunities go unmet. The doors will not remain open forever. As health systems around the world modernize, healthcare missions and missionaries become less necessary in the eyes of the host community, and the missionary’s witness and scope of influence are curtailed significantly.
How to De-stress in Your Distress
I picked up the phone to return a call from a message I had received on my office voicemail earlier that day. The call was from a doctor. I called the doctor back and said, “Hello, this is Pastor Bert from CMDA returning your phone call, how can I help you?” After a pause, he responded, “Thank you for calling me back; I don’t know how much longer I can continue to practice in this environment.” As he continued to download the heavy burden he was carrying, I realized the doctor on the other end of the call was in distress. It was a 911 call for spiritual help. Unfortunately, that phone call is becoming all too common and frequent in my office.
Professional, Not Provider—Please!
“You have to prescribe some penicillin for my sore throat.”
“When I feel like this my real doctor always gives me…”
Phrases like these were extremely common in my daily practice when I served as a physician at a university student health center early in my career. Those words were often a result of simple naivete, but consumer-driven patient attitudes have intensified dramatically through the years. Here in Canada, where euthanasia/assisted suicide is legal, I currently face more serious and sinister demands in my palliative care practice.
CMDA Ethics Statement on Homosexuality
In this position statement, CMDA provides biblical, social and medical support for a biblical view of sexuality defined as sexual activity within the confines of a marriage between a man and a woman. After detailing that support, the statement makes recommendations for the Christian community regarding how to respond to individuals struggling with same-sex attraction. The statement also provides recommendations regarding compassionate medical care for individuals struggling with homosexuality to Christian healthcare professionals. The statement concludes with recommendations regarding the importance of nondiscrimination.
Street Medicine: Running a Free Clinic in the Era of COVID
When I contracted COVID-19 on March 18, 2020, it was so early in the outbreak of the pandemic that my illness sent shock waves of fear through Inland Vineyard Medical Mission and Free Clinic where I serve as director. Everyone on our team was worried, including our student workers. How would we keep our team safe? And how would we still treat our patients? For most of our patients, we are their main source for both food and medical care. Where would they go if we suddenly shut our doors?
Christ with Us: Practicing Christ-like Presence in an Age of Burnout
One week into a rotation in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), I found myself dreaming about the hospital. I was not dreaming about saying the wrong thing on rounds, but I was dreaming about our patients: Mr. Brown’s wife when she’d been told he may not survive his third surgery this admission; Mr. Thomas’s mom crying because she felt responsible for how he’d “turned out.” I told an attending I trusted that I was distressed by how much I was carrying patients’ stories with me, and she graciously admitted to me she’d struggled with the same thing early on in training. The solution, she said, is to not get so attached. “That’s how you burn out,” she said.
Answering the Call: Launching of a CMDA Specialty Section
How the spiritual needs of an academic-based group of physicians and scientists inspired the founding of the Christian Academic Physicians and Scientists (CAPS), a specialty section of CMDA.
CMDA Ethics Statement on Abortion
The active termination of pregnancy has existed since 1550 BCE, with the first documented abortion occurring in Egypt. The School of Hippocrates included the following prohibition against abortion in the oath named for him in approximately 400 BCE: “I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion.” The attitude toward abortion throughout its 3,500-year history has varied from general acceptance to criminalization of the act, including the death penalty in certain circumstances. That range of perspective, except for the death penalty, remains today with the overall trend worldwide toward increasing cultural acceptance of abortion. The Christian Church from its earliest recorded Patristic writings outside of the New Testament condemned abortion as murder. This statement outlines and supports CMDA’s affirmation of the historical prohibition against abortion.
CMDA Ethics Statement on Persons with Acquired Cognitive Impairment
This ethical statement outlines CMDA’s affirmation of the value of all persons with cognitive impairment, recognizing their inherent dignity. CMDA believes that in spite of their cognitive impairment, they can lead meaningful lives with the help of caregivers, who deserve our help support and prayers.
Faith Prescriptions: Just What the Doctor Ordered
Introducing a new video-based teaching program from CMDA to equip healthcare professionals to share the love of Christ with their patients and colleagues
A Strategic Plan to Succeed
I had spent more than four years wishing and praying for a CT scanner at Tenwek Hospital, a 300-bed referral center in rural southwest Kenya where I was serving as a missionary surgeon in Africa. For years, every patient who came to us with a closed head injury, an abdominal mass or recurrent abdominal pain had to be referred to a larger hospital in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. But more often than not, patients wouldn’t or couldn’t go to Nairobi, regularly due to the high cost of travel and treatment.
But God: Finding the Silver Lining
I remember early on hearing in the news about a virus causing problems in China. It wasn’t long before we heard news of it spreading. As it began to spread, we were busy planning for March, our busiest month of mission trips. We send the most teams in the month of March, which gives mission opportunities for various schools during the annual spring break period. We sent our first two teams out before countries began closing their borders. While these two teams were still out of the country, we began cancelling our remaining trips. First it was for the month, then it became two and on through the summer. Before we knew it, we had cancelled every single remaining mission trip scheduled throughout the remainder of 2020—all as a result of COVID-19.
Facing the Virus Overseas
When COVID-19 began sweeping around the globe in early 2020, career healthcare missionaries were faced with the option of staying in their countries of service to weather the storm or evacuating back to the United States before the borders closed. Without sufficient quantities of protective equipment for staff members, would rural mission hospitals be able to survive the pandemic? In countries where the medical infrastructure is limited at best, would there be enough resources? What about food and other supplies to help to meet the day-to-day needs if the airports closed?
Lessons Learned in the COVID-19 Field Hospital
When 2020 started, I had a plan. A plan to follow God’s leading to serve on a mission trip in Southeast Cambodia. Like everyone else, those plans were completely changed when the pandemic hit.
But God.
Courage through the Crisis: Stories from the Frontlines
More than a year ago, we watched as New York City and the surrounding area became the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis when the pandemic initially broke out in the United States. At this year’s CMDA Virtual National Convention, we shared stories from several CMDA members from the area whose lives and work in healthcare were impacted by the virus.
As we consider how COVID-19 has changed our world and our profession in healthcare, these stories share how God has worked in and through our members during this crisis.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING: Common Psychiatric Consequences of Human Trafficking on Children and Adolescents and Their Medical Management
Human Trafficking affects numerous children and teens throughout the world. One of the significant health consequences of this are mental health problems. Of note are high rates of anxiety, depression, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) identified in multiple studies of trafficked children. Full medical care of these individuals therefore will entail screening for the symptoms of mental health disorders. Treatment should involve therapy as much is available in the areas where they are recovering and learning to return to normal life. Medications can be considered for these mental health diagnoses as well with care taken in prescribing for children and teenagers. This article gives a framework for primary care professionals to establish mental healthcare as part of their management of children and adolescents who have been through human trafficking.
ETHICAL VACCINES: Ready for a shot in the arm?
With millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses already plunged into American arms and hundreds of million more doses on the way, can healthcare professionals confidently receive the vaccines themselves and also recommend them for patients?
While responses to this question often involve important emotional factors that need to be addressed, this article focuses on three rational considerations: safety, efficacy and ethics.
First Fridays at the Mortons
My husband and I had just moved from Michigan to Texas for my first year of medical school at the University Health Science Center San Antonio. We walked up to the door of a house we had never visited, hand-in-hand wondering what the evening ahead would hold, with unfamiliar people, in this unfamiliar part of the country. As we arrived at the front door, we could hear the sounds of conversation mixed with laughter inside, along with the delicious aroma of cooking pizza tantalizing our taste buds. Another couple our age greeted us warmly while handing us an apron, sending us toward a buzzing kitchen to begin creating our “couple pizza” for the pizza bake-off contest! Wow! It was a Texas size welcome.
My Hour Has Come!
“Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.’”
—John 12:23
Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection were the fulfillment of multiple Old Testament prophecies, and they coincided with a time period of unbridled harshness and brutality. Death by crucifixion, as described by Martin Hengel, was “a barbaric form of execution of the utmost cruelty” and as “the supreme Roman penalty.”
Membership Survey Results
Every five years, the CMDA Board of Trustees goes through a cycle of comprehensive strategic planning. This well-thought out process has guided and directed the organization throughout the last 25 years, as it focuses on better meeting the needs of our members and providing ministry to those we serve around the world.
Growth Spurt
Sometimes reality is far more awe-inspiring than anything even the most imaginative of writers could dream up. Decades ago, the idea that a woman could become pregnant with her adopted child seemed like science fiction. However, reproductive medicine has long since crossed biological boundaries in ways that once seemed impossible, creating complex problems that require morally sound, technology-driven solutions. Since 2003, the Knoxville, Tennessee-based National Embryo Donation Center (NEDC) has been the national leader for one such solution: embryo donation/embryo adoption (ED/EA). The NEDC specializes in honoring life in its very earliest stages and facilitating pregnancies for women who want to carry their adopted children. And these days, the ministry is busier than ever, adding new initiatives and team members to expand the quality and scope of its life-affirming work.
I Got My Joy Back…Now What? A Deeper Understanding of Joy Through a Trip to Israel
In the fall 2017 edition of Today’s Christian Doctor, I wrote an article about burnout stealing joy in my personal and professional life. I am thankful the Lord brought me out of that low place. He has continued to work on helping me understand what I initially wrote:
“Joy is not a feeling of happiness; it is a daily commitment. According to Psalm 51:12, joy stems from understanding our worth in Christ and what we receive through His salvation. Joy starts with having the humility of a child that Jesus talks about in Matthew 18:4. Joy continues through an obedient life and trials that lead to perseverance according to James 1:2-3.”
Feed My Sheep
As Christians in healthcare, we are called to take our faith into the workplace, whether it be in a clinic, in a hospital or in academia. My journey in medicine led me from the clinic into academia. I actually consider myself an accidental academician who never meant to end up in charge of training a portion of the physician assistant workforce. This, however, is exactly why I am writing this story, to encourage my colleagues and help them understand who the sheep are, why they need feeding, how to feed them and when to stop feeding them.
Everything That Has Breath
Bubbles billowed heavenward with every measured breath as I adjusted my mask, cleared my ears, checked my depth gauge, and glanced down at my Luminox Navy Seal dive watch. Kneeling on the silt floor of the Red Sea, 41 feet below the water surface, we watched and waited, hoping to spot a dolphin.
Dentally Impacting the World for Christ
Over the last two years, CMDA’s dental outreach has developed into a two-pronged approach, ministering to traditional private dental professionals and also those seeking to serve the underserved, both domestically and internationally. Vice President for Dental Ministries Dr. William “Griff” Griffin focuses primarily on engaging with our dental members, while Vice President for Dental Education Dr. Jeff Amstutz is developing general practice dental residency programs to equip dentists in ministering to the poor in the name of Jesus. Both aspects of CMDA’s Dental Ministries have been made possible by the generosity of the late Dr. Pete Dawson, who we seek to honor in this article, as we trace the Lord’s guiding hand over the last decade.
At the Heart of the Crisis: Personal Reflections on COVID-19
It is no exaggeration for me to say CMDA has had an influential impact on my adult spiritual life. Since 1999, I have been active with CMDA in one way or another. In 2017, my work with the New York City chapter was significantly increasing, and I found myself more interested in ministry activities than even my own private practice in surgery. After a couple years of praying and planning, I officially began my full-time ministry as the NYC Area Director on March 1, 2020. There was no way humanly possible we could have foreseen what would occur in NYC that same month.
Racism in Healthcare: No One is Immune
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
—Psalm 51:10, ESV
It must start with us.
Many things have been laid bare this year. In late 2019, a novel Coronavirus referred to as SARS-CoV-2 originating in Wuhan, Hubei, China spread to the United States becoming a global pandemic. By mid-July of this year, there were close to 13 million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, with around six million active cases affecting more than 200 countries. In the United States, there have been more than three million COVID-19 cases (with more than one million recovered) and more than 500,000 deaths. We would soon learn that African Americans—who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population—disproportionately comprise U.S. COVID-19 fatalities, with many having underlying health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma. Income and wealth inequalities also tend to create greater disparities within communities of color, making access to adequate healthcare and healthy living an elusive and unaffordable necessity.
Pornography and Interactive Sexual Devices
Pornography is any medium that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to entice sexual imagination. Pornography has no beneficial use but damages human relationships. Mass communication technologies such as the Internet have expanded its reach to an unprecedented degree. Video and virtual reality have intensified its content. The introduction of sex robots that imitate human speech and sexual behaviors and are designed to perform sexual acts with humans are an extreme elaboration of pornography. All of these have dangerous psychological, social, and spiritual consequences.
Learning from History: The Case Against Assisted Suicide
It has been said that the best way to learn about our future is to look to our past. A historical reflection on the actions of those who have gone before us can both guide us toward monumental successes and deter us from repeating colossal mistakes. A glance to history may reveal progressive social and technological advancements, yet it also affirms that the basic principles of a man’s heart remain unchanged. As Proverbs reminds us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12).
Redefining Essential in the Midst of a Pandemic
Am I essential? As general dental professionals, we do not imagine many of you have asked yourselves this question. By choosing dentistry as a profession, it is safe to assume a certain level of job security and financial stability. Though both of those factors may have been initial lures into the field, what inspires us daily to practice dentistry is the impact we have in the lives of our patients, each created in the image of God. As dentists, all that we work to achieve is essential to the health and well-being of our respective communities. And yet, in the midst of the Coronavirus global pandemic, it feels like oral healthcare was deemed non-essential. States recommended dentists limit their offices to emergency patients only. No handpieces were running. No cavitrons were cleaning. Some dentists were even finding themselves unemployed! Oral healthcare seemed low on the priority list, and any momentum we had made in terms of advocating prevention felt lost.
Earn Continuing Education: 2 Hours Now Available
We are now offering continuing education credits through Today’s Christian Doctor. Two hours of self-instruction are available.
Downcast: Suffering, Depression and the Goodness of God
The question of suffering is a big one in depression, since suffering can lead to depression, and depression itself is suffering. We are fortunate to live in a society that is largely insulated from suffering, compared to other places and times where people have had to grapple with the daily reality of illness, death, poverty or war. As a consequence, we are fearful of any kind of suffering.
Anxious? Me, Too. How To Lean On God When Feelings Don’t Cooperate
I’ve been a family doctor in the same location for 30 years, so many of my patients have been with me a decade…or two…or three. Following people through their life stages has been a joy. We’ve grown older together. I’ve been acutely aware of this in the last two weeks as I’ve called patients to reschedule them. I’ve wanted to call them myself to make sure they don’t need anything, because I’d rather they avoid any medical facility for the next six months.
Making CMDA Better: Lessons from Basic Life Support
I still remember the first time I donned a whitecoat (one of those half-length coats for students) with a stethoscope in my pocket and walked into a patient room at the big city hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1985. I was a second-year medical student at Indiana University, and I had just received instruction from my clinical instructor on how to perform a thorough history and physical. I don’t remember my first patient’s name, but she was a young woman with a loud systolic heart murmur even I could hear. I also remember three words that were to guide me through each step of a thorough physical exam: “Look, listen and feel.” A couple of years later, those three words became critical again as I took my first basic life support (BLS) course and became certified both in BLS and Advanced cardiac life support (ACLS), prior to becoming a surgical resident. Again, the phrase, “Look, listen and feel,” was the guiding mantra to get my first BLS certification card.
CMDA Statement: Advance Directives
Whereas modern medicine has made available technologies that can prolong life, medical science alone cannot answer questions of whether life-sustaining technologies should be used in particular circumstances or whether such technologies are consistent with patients’ goals of care, values, and beliefs about health, life, and death.
Gifts and Miracles: My Unexpected Journey into Addiction Medicine
When I entered my family medicine residency, I had a cohort of marijuana-smoking pregnant women to care for. They drove me crazy. Many nights I would come home to my wife and tell her, “If I ever really hate myself, I will figure out a way to treat adolescent, obstetric addiction.”
The Mountaintop
Burnout is the current buzzword in healthcare, the subject of endless articles and editorial commentaries. Fatigue, depersonalization and cynicism characterize this happiness-ruining and career-destroying disease, which has reached epidemic levels among healthcare professionals across the country.
After Ebola: Confronting the Trauma
In the closing months of 1989, a brutal civil war erupted in Liberia and soon engulfed the small West African country. At the time, T. Abraham Browne was in high school, and the senseless killings forced him and his siblings to flee for their lives to escape the bloodshed. They reached a refugee camp where Abraham would spend the next 10 years.
The Lure of Money
Most people can do one or two of these things, but very few people can do more than that. I have always found this idea intriguing as my family and I considered how to budget the money we have been given. But it leaves out something very important we can do with our extra money, doesn’t it? We can give it away.
Transformed Doctors, Transforming the World: Peter E. Dawson, DDS
“I have been richly blessed by God, and I have a burning desire to do what I can to bring His message to anyone who will listen.” —Peter E. Dawson, DDS
CMDA Statement on Medical Marijuana
The Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) has developed this policy on “medical marijuana” with both an inherent belief that the Bible is the Word of God–that it speaks into our time and culture and that God gave us his creation to use to its fullest potential—and with the incorporation of scientific evidence which provides a window into the truths about God’s creation.
HHS Protects Conscience Freedoms
Conscience-guided healthcare professionals and students received a healthy dose of positive federal policy advances in the last few months. CMDA played a role advocating on behalf of our members in each of the following federal policy reforms that relate to conscience freedom, gender issues and abortion.
Transformed Doctors, Transforming the World: Featuring Drs. Joshua and Hannah Evans
: I became involved with CMDA during my second year of medical school. God was working in my life at that time through several events, and in CMDA I found a welcoming, loving, supporting group of friends who loved the Lord and encouraged me in my spiritual growth.