11th International Conference ‘Matercare’ – Rome
“Maternal Health and the Catholic Conscience”
The theme of this year’s conference is “Maternal Health and the Catholic Conscience” will focus on discrimination befalling practicing Catholic Obstetricians, Gynaecologists and Midwives as well as the training of medical students and future specialists.
Among the featured speakers will be Professor Bogdan Chazan, one of the most senior specialists in Warsaw who recently was dismissed from his position as the CEO of the Holy Family Hospital in Warsaw, on the grounds of his refusal to abort a baby with lethal congenital anomalies. The Prime Minster of Poland at the time responded in a public statement saying “law comes before faith”.
Other speakers include two senior midwives who lost their case before the Supreme Court, of the UK,to uphold their right to conscientious objection in the supervision of abortion procedures.
Added to this history of ongoing and institutionalized discrimination is the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Canada to allow for Physician Assisted Suicide in certain cases and the change in by-laws drafted by the Colleges of Physicians in Ontario and Saskatchewan that will require a doctor to refer to another compliant doctor for procedures that they find morally objectionable. This raises the ethical concern of complicity and cooperation, which many doctors with moral integrity will find unacceptable.
All of this has profound significance for the future of health care and the ministry of the church, especially as lay health professionals take the place of religious. The covenant relationship that used to exist between doctor and patient, second only to that of the priest, is being corrupted such that doctors are now becoming simply technicians who will be required by state law to end life both at the beginning and the end – perhaps even without the consent from whom they are caring for. This will no doubt continue to encompass more lives as the cost of care for severely premature babies, the elderly, and those with terminal illnesses rises. Few young doctors are entering the specialty of obstetrics and others sadly compromise their moral integrity in order to sustain their careers. For mothers the developing world relying on foreign aid, the situation raises the question, where will they receive care from doctors who respect their dignity, faith beliefs and decisions about their babies and families?
Obstetricians and midwives share the most privileged of all medical or nursing specialties, as they care for the co-creators of human life. The Blessed Mother had the most intimate of relationships that any human being has had with God when she nourished and nurtured His Son in her womb. All mothers share in this intimacy of creation in a very distinctive way and they also understand in a particular way the suffering of the blessed Mother at the foot of the cross when they too loose their babies.
Such truths invite consideration of a “Theology of Motherhood”, a theology that enables us to see mothers as they are, unique in their manner of knowing and participating in God’s life and would help invigorate people to protect and care for Mothers worldwide. Not least because of this role in emphasizing a theology of motherhood, the 11th MaterCare International conference will be central, not only for the future of MCI, but more importantly for the future of the Church’s health care ministry to mothers. We urge you to send at least one delegate from your country or your guild of catholic doctors.
Thank you and prayerful good wishes for a Joyous Easter
Dr Rob Walley
Executive Director,
Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Telephone: +1(709) 579-6472
Website: www.matercare.org
Email: info@matercare.org
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