EAGAN, Minn. (OSV News) – Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis opened a recent Healthcare Leadership Summit at St. John Neumann in Eagan with a prayerful call to preserve the heritage of Catholic health care in the face of strong headwinds.
It was a call to dialogue and collaboration in caring for body and soul at a time when the dignity and value of human life at many stages and in many forms is being debated.
Hosted by the Minnesota Catholic Conference and the Minnesota chapter of the Catholic Health Association, the Sept. 18 event drew many health care professionals. Keynote speaker Dr. Kristin Collier, associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan, and six panelists in three-panel sessions discussed abortion, assisted suicide and other topics.
Since the 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the regulation of abortion to federal and state lawmakers, the Minnesota Legislature has enacted sweeping laws to increase its accessibility. At the same time, proposals to overturn Minnesota's ban on assisted suicide have been presented in the name of compassion and death with dignity.
Physician-assisted suicide is currently legal in 10 states and the District of Columbia. One proposal in Minnesota, HF1930, which sought to establish an end-of-life option for terminally ill adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live, did not make it out of committee in the 2023-2024 legislative session, which adjourned in May.
Abortion and assisted suicide are contrary to Catholic teaching, which honors life from conception until natural death. Panelists pointed out that physician-assisted suicide also goes against the American Medical Association Code of Medical Ethics, which holds that "physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician's role as healer."
"How you see the value of human beings matters immensely," said Collier, who acknowledged that as a medical student and before she became Christian, she was a "functional utilitarian" who accepted abortion as a medical practice. She presented different states of patients seen by health care professionals while asking how one should evaluate their level of humanity – and whether they should.
Collier asked those present to consider whether someone is less human as a newborn, a quadriplegic, a person with cerebral palsy or while under sedation with a diminished level of consciousness. Is their humanity diminished?
A panelist who was trained as a United States military physician described the health care profession as a battlefield. In an increasingly secular environment where physicians are divided and scrutinized, freedom of conscience is at issue, she said.
Noting that doctors are under attack every day and are often ostracized for their beliefs, she said that being Catholic and a health care professional should not be mutually exclusive. The church needs to raise its voice on behalf of religious liberty, she advised, and let it be known that the dignity of humanity matters.
"Science is on our side," Collier said in response to a question about how Catholic physicians can gain respect for their beliefs. The practice of abortion, she said, is an affront to the vocation of medicine. She referred to established facts surrounding the beginning of human life with fertilization in contrast to the arguments of convenience and choice in support of the practice of abortion.
"There is (currently) a low view of humanity in medicine," Collier said, describing a practice which, instead of treating humanity with dignity, has bent it to transactional purposes.
Bishop Daniel J. Felton of Duluth emphasized the connection between the Catholic faith and caring for the health of others. Acting on one's faith and moral beliefs in the care of others is a partnership between ministry and mission, the bishop said.
"This summit is not just to get us together," concluded Bishop Felton, "It's a statement that we need each other."
In a health care landscape where some believe assisted suicide to be ethical and where abortion is often considered a solution to unwanted pregnancies, several speakers pointed out that the language used to describe these realities has become sterilized through terminology.
Coded words are directed at religious beliefs. This means that, beyond just talk and making rational arguments, health care professionals need to live out their faith in their practice as a witness to their beliefs, panelists said.
Effecting long-term change in health care practice begins with education, said panelist Mercy Sister Agnes Mary Graves, director of the nursing program at St. Mary's University of Minnesota. Sister Agnes said a major challenge with today's young people is severe deficits in reasoning ability.
In answer to a question posed on how to teach young people to be rational and objective – to know what is true – Sr. Agnes said the university needs more teachers of ethics, morality and Christian anthropology.
The laborers in the vineyard are few, she concluded, but the harvest opportunities are rich.
"University and hospital systems originally came out of the church as ministries of Jesus," said Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona and Rochester, who spoke to the roots of faith and caring in Christian anthropology. The question is whether bytes and buzzwords are so ingrained in the social psyche that people can "budget" other people, make abortion a decision of convenience and confuse perceptions of gender, he said.
Those in attendance generally agreed that medicine is one of the most rewarding professions, but physicians need support from the church and from parish communities to be true to their faith in practice.
"It takes courage," said panelist Dr. Dennis O'Hare of Bluestone Physician Services, which has offices in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Florida. "It helps to have someone walk beside you."
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