Dr. Weigel’s Diagnosis and Treatment Are Correct

COMMENTARY: Catholic health-care professionals are fighting to restore moral integrity to medicine — but they need reinforcements.

By Dr. Tim Millea

In a recent column, George Weigel points to his numerous family members who have found their vocation in helping others as physicians, nurses and other health-care professionals. However, he should not minimize his own acumen for analysis and proper care of a patient’s problem. His patient is American medicine, which he accurately assesses as suffering from a lack of moral and ethical principles. His recommendations are likewise sound and constitute what we in medicine call “best practices.” As in health care, diagnosis and treatment are frequently straightforward, but the real challenge lies in implementing the means to effect a cure.

Two terms used by Mr. Weigel deserve emphasis: the “plague of wokery” and Pope St. John Paul II’s “culture of death.” From the perspective of not only Catholic health-care professionals but likely a majority of those providing patient care today, both descriptions are apt. Tragically, the combination of these two maladies is a double dose of a societal and cultural poison. An antidote exists but administering it will require a much larger dose than what is currently being applied.

Enough with metaphors — American health care is failing. Of course, the issues of cost of care, lack of clinicians, availability of care, and other factors are serious concerns. But the most critical component, and the one that requires the most attention, is the care itself. We all want good care — but is there goodness in our care?

Abortion, assisted suicide, IVF –– these and other practices are considered de rigueur by many, perhaps even most, Americans in current surveys. Yet they are in direct violation of Catholic principles — principles that are shared with many other faiths. How has this come about?

As was seen in academia and government, American medical schools have been consistently staffed with physicians and scientists who promote these concepts as “standards of care” to their young students. Over recent decades, ardently Catholic medical and nursing students have faced increasing harassment, intimidation and threats as a result of their beliefs. Many have been told that they “have no business being in medicine” unless they accede to unethical methods of care. They are left with three options: keep quiet, drop out, or suffer the abuse.

In conversations with medical students, they describe an environment akin to a 21st-century version of worshipping in the catacombs — those who publicly uphold their beliefs will suffer the consequences. They are among the most courageous of our colleagues.

The call for “well-catechized Catholic health-care professionals” is urgent, but who will answer that call? Members of the Catholic Medical Association are indeed at the forefront of debates in moral medicine at both the federal and state levels. However, while our 3,000 members are involved in these battles, we are facing the deep pockets and cultural clout of entities like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. We share our trenches with like-minded comrades in an alphabet soup of medical organizations — CHCLA, CMDA, AAPLOG, ACPeds, AHM and AJMA. The forces are in the fight. But we need more — more people and more resources.