Preserving Human Dignity in the Science and Art of Medicine — Imago Dei

By Charlie Peters, M.D.

Throughout human history, physicians have played an essential role in preserving human dignity and promoting the common good. Many Christian physicians understand their vocations as healers modeled after that of the Divine Healer, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

From the time of the Middle Ages, society’s language has reflected this critical work of physicians by referring to them as “healers.” The sacred and covenantal nature of the relationship between the healer and the sick person is both recognized and revered. The ancient Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians has been and should continue to be a testament to this sacred relationship. However, in recent times, the sanctity of this relationship has been seriously threatened in many ways. For example, in the United States, the government and commercial insurance sectors were among the earliest adopters of the term “provider” in health care. Since 1965, Medicare has been using “provider” in its forms to describe entities eligible to receive Medicare payment for treatment of “customers.”

If the physician-patient relationship is allowed to be transformed into a “transactional exchange”, what does this monumental shift portend for the healing arts? The following are just a few of the possible ensuing and disturbing consequences:

The “customer” may visit the “provider” with the expectation of receiving any and all the service(s) that he/she requests (i.e., a form of radical and oppressive autonomy; in short, “the customer is always right!”)
In today’s culture drowning due to the millstones of moral relativism and nihilism, the “customer’s” requests will often know no moral limits.
The conscience rights of physician healers will be trampled underfoot of onrushing, frenzied “shoppers” and by government agencies that promote their “rights” to unfettered shopping.
The dignity of physician healers, reduced to “health care vending machines” will be seriously harmed and the sanctity of the physician-patient relationship potentially, irreparably sullied.

To preserve the sanctity of the relationship between the healer and the sick person, the Christian physician and the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) are charged with the responsibility of unequivocally defending this relationship as it was intended by the Most Holy Trinity and Holy Mother Church. Both the healer and the one seeking healing are created Imago Dei and therefore possess innate human dignity; both are answerable to God; both were created to know, love and serve God in this life and to be with Him in Eternity (Baltimore Catechism). We are called to celebrate these Truths and to promote and defend them in our culture.

CMA’s 93rd Annual Educational Conference, under the leadership of Felix A. Rodriguez, M.D. and his team, is titled “Imago Dei: Made in His Image, Male and Female He Created Them.” What better way is there to celebrate the sacred, covenantal relationship between the healer and the patient than to embrace the foundational elements of this conference as well as the work of CMA’s Health Care Policy Committee and Conscience Rights Protection Task Force under the direction of Chair Tim Millea, M.D.?

According to St. John Paul II in the encyclical Evangelium Vitae, “Respect for life requires that science and technology should always be at the service of man and his integral development. Society as a whole must respect, defend and promote the dignity of every human person, at every moment and in every condition of that person’s life” (Paragraph #82).

This is the mission of the Catholic Medical Association and the ultimate goal of social justice in medicine.

Dr. Charles Peters is a member of CMA’s Catholic Social Teaching on Justice in Medicine Committee.

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