The Point of Medicine

Point of Medicine

The following articles fall under this category of content within The Point of Medicine.

Truth Telling in Medicine

By Robert E. Cranston, MD, MA (Ethics) | April 7, 2026
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Merriam Webster defines lying as “saying or writing something that is not true in order to deceive someone.”  In this article, the “author outlines 12 common types of lies, including bold-faced lies, broken promises, lies of fabrication, lies of deception, exaggeration, plagiarism, denial, omission, minimization, withholding information, and selective memory. It notes that classifications of lies can vary depending on the source, and some lies may fall under multiple categories.”

The Future of Christian Medicine

By Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Bioethics) | March 31, 2026
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The ability to think critically and deeply is crucial for Christian students in healthcare as they face ethical dilemmas that didn’t exist a generation ago. Should a Christian healthcare professional use a patient’s preferred pronouns if the patient identifies as a member of the opposite sex? What advice should they offer to parents of minors struggling with their sexual identity?

AI in Medicine: A Primer

By Steven Willing, MD | March 23, 2026
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Clinicians have used computerized image analysis for decades, particularly in ultrasound and nuclear medicine. Earlier systems relied on explicit, rule‑based algorithms written by engineers. The transition to what is now properly called “artificial intelligence” occurred when models began learning their own features and decision logic directly from data—most notably with the adoption of deep learning in medical imaging over the last decade.

2026 US Childhood Immunization Schedule Reduction and the Christian Clinician: A Bioethical Analysis of Process and Content

By Richard K. Zimmerman, MD MPH MA (Bioethics) FAAFP FIDSA | March 3, 2026
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We have major concerns about the comparisons and processes used in reducing the federal number of recommended childhood immunizations and fear the disharmony with professional societies will lead to further confusion and distrust of public health.

Christians in Medical School: Why Faith Belongs in Medical Training

By Kayla Grooters | February 17, 2026
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Medical school is a like a marathon, for which you are both grateful and terrified to run. For the first half, you are force fed from a fire hose seemingly every factoid about human genetics, embryology, physiology and anatomy, all summarized in the 30,000 Anki cards you will commit to memory.

Hepatitis B Vaccine and the Christian Clinician: A Bioethical Analysis of the Votes in December 2025 of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)

By Richard K. Zimmerman, MD MPH MA (Bioethics) FAAFP FIDSA | February 5, 2026
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God’s truth in Scripture and creation extends to scientific truths via common grace. The speech of God, which is always truthful, results in Scripture, creation and providence.

A Christian’s Guide to Practicing Healthcare

By Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Bioethics) | January 6, 2026
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The benefits of taking the risk to speak out are not only eternal but will also increase your sense of joy knowing that you are walking in obedience to the Lord. But that does not mean it will be easy, which is why I recommend regularly reading about persecuted Christians around the world.

Christian Healthcare in a Violent World

By John K. Petty, MD, MS | December 2, 2025
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While violence is not original to our times, it is certainly true of our times. It takes numerous different forms, all of them ugly: child abuse, intimate partner violence, gang violence, “random” violence, political violence, hate crime, elder abuse, workplace violence and countless other manifestations.

The Blessing of Justin: Seeing God’s Purpose in Our Son’s Life

By David Beyda, MD | November 11, 2025
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Justin—a man with intellectual disabilities whose life has revealed the quiet power of love, faith and belonging. What began as a journey filled with uncertainty became one of profound grace, reminding us that God’s greatest gifts often come through the lives of those who teach us how to love without condition.

Human Trafficking is Still a Horrendous Problem

By Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Bioethics) | October 7, 2025
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With the media focusing primarily on the sweeping changes brought about by the Trump administration, it is easy to lose sight of underlying social evils such as human trafficking. Unfortunately, the COVID pandemic and the increasing proliferation of social media both contributed to an increase in the prevalence of human trafficking.

Treasures, Tombs and Eternity

By Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD, MBA | April 8, 2025
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One thing the Egyptians are incredibly good at is the preservation of their artifacts and education about them. The last stop we made yesterday was to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, a museum that tries to teach the 7,000+ years of Egyptian history chronologically, tying the artifacts, structures and stories together in a way that gives an arc and a progression to the story.

CMDA Should (Re)-Assert Support for Childhood Vaccination

By Jon Holmlund, MD, MA | March 27, 2025
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The current measles outbreak in Texas, the ascension of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to the post of Secretary of Health and Human Services and broad societal trends have prompted widespread debate over the wisdom and future of vaccinating children for preventable infectious diseases with meaningful, even major, morbidity and mortality.

Let Us Not Forget Ongoing Christian Persecution

By Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Bioethics) | March 13, 2025
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During Lent as we approach Resurrection Day, a number of Christians choose to “give up” something they enjoy, such as a specific food or habit, to identify with the suffering of Jesus on the cross. One habit to consider adopting during this season is the admonition found in Hebrews 13:3: “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body” (ESV).

Kuczewski Errs: Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

By Robert E. Cranston, MD, MA (Ethics) | March 10, 2025
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In a recent Hasting Center Bioethics Forum Essay, “Supporting Patients and Students Who Are Immigrants: What to do and Why Most Bioethicists Won’t Do It,” Mark Kuczewski asserts that bioethicists, and medical systems in general, should not cooperate with any governmental attempts to identify or detain aliens who seek medical care within our hospitals and clinics.

President Trump’s Executive Order on IVF

By André Van Mol, MD | March 3, 2025
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On February 18, President Trump signed an executive order titled, “EXPANDING ACCESS TO IN VITRO FERTILIZATION.” Noting “the importance of family formation,” the prevalence of infertility (“as many as one in seven”), and the high cost of IVF ($12,000 to $25,000 per cycle), the administration committed itself to a policy which would “ensure reliable access to IVF treatment” by “Lowering Costs and Reducing Barriers to IVF.”

The USAID Imbroglio: A Misinformation Campaign—Part 1

By Steven Willing, MD | February 26, 2025
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Between my junior and senior years, I worked a summer job as a secretary-typist with the reviled United States Agency for International Development (USAID). What can I say? I was only 18 and not yet attuned to the subtle tells typically attributed to international criminal organizations.

The Corruption of Psychology: How Ideology Has Replaced Ethics and Healing

By Jeffrey E. Hansen, PhD | February 17, 2025
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There was a time when psychology was dedicated to truth, healing and human flourishing. At its core, our profession was meant to serve as a beacon of understanding, guiding individuals toward mental clarity, emotional resilience and personal freedom.

An Update on PEPFAR from CMDA

By Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Bioethics) | February 13, 2025
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In 2003, President George W. Bush launched a program called The President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which has become one of the most successful foreign aid programs in United States history. According to the State Department, as of September 30, 2023, PEPFAR has saved 25 million lives and enabled 5.5 million babies to be born HIV-free.

“Nature” Does a Face Plant: Promoting the Transgender Suicide Myth

By Steven Willing, MD | January 16, 2025
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What if an original research paper published in a respected international scientific journal declared that keeping men out of women’s sports or banning the gender transitioning of minors caused an increase in suicide attempts among transgender youth? Wouldn’t you expect them to show actual evidence of an increase? Well, you ought. But they didn’t.

Social Transitioning is Neither Neutral nor Benign

By André Van Mol, MD | January 9, 2025
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Here at CMDA, we’re often asked about why we, as an organization broadly and as our advocacy team specifically, seem to be more concerned about policy and ethics and less so about domestic missions—for our neighbors in need here in the U.S. These inquires and suggestions are often made out of concern that our engagement in legislation and the ethics around certain life issues comes at the expense or dismissal of the vulnerable.

A Mission to Protect the Vulnerable

By JC Bicek | December 18, 2024
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Here at CMDA, we’re often asked about why we, as an organization broadly and as our advocacy team specifically, seem to be more concerned about policy and ethics and less so about domestic missions—for our neighbors in need here in the U.S. These inquires and suggestions are often made out of concern that our engagement in legislation and the ethics around certain life issues comes at the expense or dismissal of the vulnerable.

“Gender-affirming Healthcare” for Adults: Is It Helpful?

By André Van Mol, MD | October 28, 2024
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With transgender interventions on minors, aka “gender-affirming healthcare” (formerly transgender-affirming therapy), falling and failing under scrutiny in about half the U.S. states and numerous nations, it was predictable that proponents of gender transition ideology would double down on claiming it is proven to help adults with gender dysphoria/transgender identification.

Empty Cradles, Empty Nurseries

By Steven Willing, MD | October 24, 2024
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As if reading from the same script, both the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal ran feature-length articles recently on the plummeting birth rates of the advanced Euro-American and East Asian nations. This phenomenon has been known for some time and continues to grow. Why is it a problem? What are the causes? What are the solutions?

ACOG Reveals Their True Priorities

By Steven A. Foley, MD | September 12, 2024
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If the electorate is not transparently educated about the devastation these amendments will bring, we can almost be assured the trickery used by abortion proponents will result in permanent loss. Repealing constitutional amendments is extremely difficult, so we must pray and do everything we can to oppose the amendments.

Protecting Life Before Actions Can’t be Undone: 2024 State Abortion Ballot Amendments

By Nicole D. Hayes, MPA | August 30, 2024
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If the electorate is not transparently educated about the devastation these amendments will bring, we can almost be assured the trickery used by abortion proponents will result in permanent loss. Repealing constitutional amendments is extremely difficult, so we must pray and do everything we can to oppose the amendments.

New Research Exposed Anti-Christian Bias in Residency Admissions

By Steven Willing, MD | August 29, 2024
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Progressive and left-wing bias in American centers of higher education is a fact so universally recognized it is barely worth mentioning. “A worrying new study suggests that young doctors with known conservative inclinations would fare worse in residency placement.”

Turning a Blind Eye to the Lack of Statistics

By Steven A. Foley, MD | August 20, 2024
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A recent article published in The New England Journal of Medicine titled “Rape, Homicide, and Abortion Bans – The Abandonment of People Subjected to Sexual and Intimate Partner Violence” is another example that abortion advocates have a single focus: to allow abortion on demand throughout pregnancy.

The Power and Permanence of State Amendments

By Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Bioethics) | August 15, 2024
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The pro-abortion forces in our country now recognize an effective path forward to remove all abortion restrictions around the country. It requires spending tens of millions of dollars, but it’s well worth it since that money will be earned back from all the abortions that will be allowed once state amendments are passed.

A Call to Engage in Contemporary Culture

By Steven A. Foley, MD | August 5, 2024
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We are living under common grace. As Colson states it, “God’s power sustains creation holding back sin and evil because of the fall and that would otherwise overwhelm his creation like a great flood.” We can be incredibly thankful for that common grace, but what is our role? What is our responsibility in holding back evil?

Lies, Love and Civil Discourse

By Robert E. Cranston, MD, MA (Ethics) | July 11, 2024
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Today, recognizing the numerous forms of lying to which we are tempted, our communication is to be characterized by veracity, courage and love. Especially in our highly polarized society, when we see the stakes of political decisions as being so high, it is tempting to fudge the truth to win an argument, or avoid speaking the truth, in order to keep the peace and avoid painful confrontation.

Suffering and Facing Death

By JC Bicek | June 6, 2024
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No fewer than 20 states introduced assisted suicide bills so far in 2024, and polling suggests the majority of Americans are sympathetic to the cause. According to the stats, this must mean a number of supporters would at least call themselves Christians, which strikes me as a sad development considering the rich tradition of Christian thought regarding how we should live in our final days.

Responding to ACOG…Again

By Steven A. Foley, MD | April 4, 2024
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On February 27, 2024, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released a “Consensus Statement on Threats to Reproductive and Maternal Health Care.” ACOG and 12 other organizations act as though they are speaking on behalf of all OB/Gyns to further their agenda that abortion is healthcare. I would like to respond, because they do not speak on my behalf.

Bulvarism and Bias: Responding to Flawed Scholarship

By Stephen Perona, PharmD, BCEMP, BCPS | March 18, 2024
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In early 2023, I read the article “Gender bias in postgraduate year one pharmacy letters of recommendation” published by in the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. The analysis contained methodological flaws, and it presented conclusions that were not derived from the evidence presented.

The Status of Frozen Children

By Jeffrey Barrows, DO, MA (Bioethics) | March 11, 2024
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Anyone paying close attention to current events has likely heard about the Alabama Supreme Court decision declaring that frozen embryos created through IVF are legally children under the state’s constitution. The legal case arose when a person unauthorized by an IVF clinic destroyed frozen embryos from three Alabama couples who later filed a lawsuit against the clinic.

Sophisticated Lies Endanger Everyone—Black, Brown, White and Other

By Nicole D. Hayes, MPA | March 4, 2024
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Language can be cloak and dagger—particularly when that “old serpent” is speaking who is none other than Satan. He is the father of lies, as noted in John 8:44. He is the original liar. Adam and Eve experienced Satan’s craftiness firsthand when he asked Eve in Genesis 3:1, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” and then went on to lie and say to her in Genesis 3:4, “You will not certainly die” (NIV).

How Then Should We Live?

By JC Bicek | February 8, 2024
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What does the Bible say about the body in light of today’s gender confusion? How then do you think we should live? While not new, a form of a gnostic dualism is ascendent in our world today. Our postmodern culture has rallied behind a two-tiered view of the human being, promoting the mind or consciousness at the expense of the body.

An Invitation to Sign the IFTCC International Declaration on Therapeutic and Pastoral Choice

By André Van Mol, MD | February 1, 2024
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The International Foundation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice (IFTCC) and their global community of member mental health and medical professionals have authored “An International Declaration on ‘Conversion Therapy’ and Therapeutic Choice,” proposing that “Signatories of this International Declaration call upon our governments, local authorities, human rights, media and religious organisations, to recognise that the right to self-determination is an established principle of international law, and therefore must include the right to shape and develop one’s own sexual identity, feelings and associated behaviours, and to receive support to do so.”

Pitching Our Tents in This Present Darkness

By Nicole D. Hayes, MPA | November 30, 2023
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This clashing of worldviews calls me and other believers to confront darkness more often than we would prefer as we demonstrate and promote God’s truth and love in a world that pursues destructive answers for healing in the brokenness of our fallen humanity. Such healing only comes through a spiritual transformation, such that we are conformed to the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2).

A Reflection on Friends, Mortality and Eternity

By Autumn Dawn Galbreath, MD, MBA | November 20, 2023
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I was surprised that the death of a celebrity, whom I did not know and was not likely to ever meet, caused such deep reflection. And yet, these kinds of moments in life always seem to do that. It’s as if we forget from day to day that our human bodies are, in fact, mortal and our days here are truly numbered.

Four New Books Dealing with Transgenderism

By André Van Mol, MD | November 16, 2023
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Publications exposing transgender ideology and its capture of academics, medicine, the entertainment industry, government and the business sector are picking up steam. What we might term the breakout books, those that caught traction and burst onto the public square addressing and countering the whirlwind of transgenderism.

Victims of the Sexual Revolution, Part 2: The Decline of Happiness, and the Plight of the Young Liberal Woman

By Steven Willing, MD | August 17, 2023
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Increasing levels of depression and other mental illnesses in Western societies have been well-described, but there are many theories as to why. In this installment, we argue that the decline of marriage is the most critical yet overlooked factor, and why the young liberal woman suffers the most.

Teaching Points from the Educator Award

By André Van Mol, MD | June 22, 2023
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At the 2023 CMDA National Convention my wife Evelyn and I were honored, blessed and quite humbled to receive the 2023 Educator of the Year Award. This all happened under the watchful eye of Princeton’s Professor Robert George, whom I have admired for years (and no, I did not go full fan boy and embarrass CMDA, but we did talk privately a while). I was given a few minutes to share some thoughts which I am now offering you, my colleagues.