Latest News
Learn About FreelyGiven Inc at CMA’s Medical Mission Event
March 10, 2024 5:17 pmBy Dr. Jacelyn Davidson We are a family of seven, called to serve as full-time missionaries and build a team of volunteers in the small, southeast Asian country of Cambodia. In this land of palm trees, rice paddies, and water buffalo, 98% of the population is Buddhist. The spiritual, economic, and medical needs here are vast. We are truly honored to serve the Lord among the warm-hearted and joyful people of Cambodia, striving to follow the admonition of Our Lord, “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). At FreelyGiven, Inc, we provide the four main ministries, which we will... View Article
Physician Assisted Suicide from the Perspective of Catholic Social Teaching
March 10, 2024 5:17 pmBy Dr. Mary Keen Kirchoff Photo courtesy by Tima Miroshnichenko. In several state assemblies, legislation has been introduced to legalize what its advocates, the group Compassion and Choices, call “medical aid in dying.” This practice is better known to us as physician assisted suicide or death by prescription, and its advocates may be better known to us under their former name, the Hemlock Society. This group claims that they are not advocating for suicide, but for “death with dignity” and a “compassionate choice.” They argue that the principle of personal autonomy requires that patients have the right to request... View Article
CMA and the Divine Physician
March 10, 2024 3:08 pmBy Lester Ruppersberger, DO, FACOOG (Dist.) CMA Past President, 2016 I was invited to join the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) by Past President Dr. Jack Lane Sr., at a medical staff meeting for a hospital where we both were worked. I had never heard of CMA, but I was in a transitional time in my life and career (having recently given up a 20-year contraceptive practice to become an NFP-only Ob/Gyn) so I reluctantly said ‘yes.’ Within a year, I was invited again to join the Board as a regional director, and, again somewhat reluctantly said ‘yes.’ Seven years... View Article
Calling All CMA Members to Supreme Court Rally March 26
March 8, 2024 7:53 pmThe health and well-being of teenage girls and young adult women is at stake in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine case that will go before the Supreme Court Tuesday, March 26. In 2000, the FDA approved the high-risk abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol for use in the United States with specific safety standards in place. The FDA required doctors to provide ongoing care to teenage girls and women using the drugs, including the necessary in-person visits to check for ectopic pregnancies, severe bleeding, and life-threatening infections. Since its initial approval, the FDA has removed... View Article
CMA Praises Alabama Supreme Court Decision Recognizing Right to Life of Embryos
February 29, 2024 3:00 pmThe Catholic Medical Association (CMA) praises the Alabama Supreme Court for its recent decision recognizing the biological fact that an embryo is a human being from the moment of fertilization, and therefore, upholding the state’s recognition of the right to life for every human being from the moment of conception. According to the ruling, written by Justice Jay Mitchell, “Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.” The ruling released Friday, February 23, 2024, was the result of two wrongful death lawsuits brought by couples whose frozen embryos were accidentally... View Article
Learn About Serving in Cambodia with Nonprofit Freely Given, Inc.
February 16, 2024 6:34 pmPlease join the CMA Medical Missions Interest Group (MMIG) to learn about the inspiring work that husband and wife duo Nic and Jacelyn Davidson, M.D. (along with their five children) are doing in Cambodia. Through their nonprofit organization, Freely Given, Inc , they not only provide medical care and support the local church, they also facilitate mission experiences for others, including both mission trips and long term assignments. When: Wednesday February 28 at 8:30 pm ET. Where: Please sign up below. A Zoom link will be sent prior to... View Article
Keeping It Simple
February 15, 2024 10:25 pmIt’s hard to believe but another Lent is upon us! During Lent we are to remember the forty days Jesus spent in the desert praying and fasting as He prepared for His three years of public life ending in His passion, death and resurrection from the dead. On Easter Sunday have you ever thought, ‘I just let another Lent slip by without doing anything beneficial?’ Most medical professionals are overachievers and tend to make resolutions too difficult to accomplish. How about keeping things simple this year? Lent is an opportunity to grow closer to God and if we keep things... View Article
In Gratitude to Pope Francis for Expressing the Church’s Strong Opposition to Reproductive Surrogacy
February 15, 2024 9:07 pmBy Nadia Smith Courtesy of Aleteia Image Department. The Catholic Medical Association is grateful to Pope Francis for shedding light on the concerning trend of surrogacy, the practice by which a couple, or even a single person, enters into an agreement with a woman who is to carry and give birth to the child through in vitro fertilization. This could even involve the donation of sperm or egg, or both, further violating the human dignity of procreation. The Pope has called for a universal ban on the practice. “The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every... View Article
CMA Members at the Forefront of Fighting State Physician Assisted Suicide Efforts
February 15, 2024 6:40 amBy Nadia Smith CMA Past President and past Baltimore Guild President Dr. Marie-Alberte Boursiquot, F.A.C.P. is working with the Maryland Catholic Conference to fight against powerful out-of-state activists, who are trying to bring physician assisted suicide (PAS) to Maryland. The Maryland Catholic Conference, the official public policy entity for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Archdiocese of Washington and Diocese of Wilmington, opposes physician assisted suicide and has sounded the alarm for those that are most at risk to be pressured to seek PAS based on findings from other states that have legalized the practice. These groups comprise the elderly, the sick... View Article
A Lenten Message from our Episcopal Advisor
February 14, 2024 8:02 pmDear CMA Members and Friends, Today we begin the holy season of Lent, a time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The great penitential season of Lent has begun with the aim at drawing us closer to our Eucharistic Lord and helping us remove those obstacles in our lives which keep us from recognizing him with amazement and thus giving ourselves more completely to him. Lent is a disruption in our daily routine, and well it should be. While a season of penance can be both uncomfortable and inconvenient, it promises profound fruit and immense graces by drawing us deeper into... View Article