Medicine: Restorative or Transformative

When we chose the theme of the XXVI Congress of the World Federation to the Catholic Physician (F.I.A.M.C.), held in Rome from 15 to 17 September 2022, Repairing towards Transforming , in medicine, our aim was to stimulate a reflexion ethic adapted to our time, as well as for a programme of human formation of the Christian Physician.

The message of this congress can essentially be summarized by these two points:

1. to help the human person to remain coherent with his or her humanity, in the variable course of history and in the complex fabric of relationships; and
2. to articulate reparation and accompaniment of the patient, with transcendence as a horizon. This message is developed in this book, under medical, philosophical and theological aspects by personalities recognized in their respective specialties.

About the authors

Foreword

Preface

Reparative or transformative medicine: A christian perspective!

MEDICAL SCIENCES

Medicine: ‘Repair’ according to the humanists versus ‘Transform’ according to the trans-humanists

From attenuation and restoration to augmentation and transformation ‒ the past, present, and future of functional brain surgery

Medical approaches to alleviate gender dysphoria: Scientific evidence and outcomes

Gender theories and transformation of the human person

Transgender surgery in adults

Transformative and restorative approach in reproductive medicine

Promises and pitfalls of medical genetics, from scientific knowledge to medical applications

Transhumanist medicine does not exist

REFLEXIONS

Medicine and transcendence: Relationship as a horizon of reparation

The crisis of reason in Western jurisprudence and its impact on the duty of medicine to protect life

Nature and transgression: Medicine and philosophical anthropology

Repairing and transforming according to the nature and the end of the human being

The role of experience to restore and transform, in the light of Greek: Exploring the room of manoeuvre

From the human body as a sign of the person to the language of the body reread in truth: Light of the theology of the body on the created and redeemed human body

Repair. Redemption. Transfiguration. Contribution to a theology of corporeality

REPAIR

The real story: Recovering the christian foundations of modern medicine

Conclusion

As a result of the increasing application of technology to medicine, modern medicine, both in research and in clinical practice, serves the human being under the domination of the technosciences.^[1] Our moral conscience has great difficulty in the face of the porosity of the ethical barrier between medical technologies that ‘repair’ the body and those that radically transform it. Indeed, medical technology, like other instances of the application of technology to human life, needs ethics to function properly; and such ethics must be rooted in the inviolable dignity of the human person and in natural moral norms.^[2]

To ‘repair’ in medicine means to cure: to ‘medicate’ what has been damaged by a pathology or a trauma to heal, namely, to be restored to good condition. It is to prevent or cure illness, while respecting the integrity and dignity of human person.

Thus the parameters that justify and explain a ‘repair’ depend both on the age of the patient, on the wholesomeness of his/her body, and on the consideration of social justice, the common good and, of course, the dignity of the patient also.

In current times, two diverging interpretations of the objectives/aims of ‘repairing’ (the body) exist. One position understands instances of a ‘repair’ (of the body) as a quest to maintain the existing biological structures and functions of the body in an eternal youthfulness. Another position considers the ‘repair’ of the actual human person, sometimes, as if he is a reduced variant of a fantasized futuristic human being: a trans-human being, formed by the fusion of man and machine, by means of the manipulation of our genetic code, in the same as a person is transferred into a robot by means of artificial intelligence.

To ‘repair’ is not necessarily to redo the same; it is rather to respect or have a regard for something that was an integral part of the human body.

Transformation in medicine, according to trans-humanist ideology, means infringing upon human nature, in complete autonomy, either for adventure or for pleasure. This is no longer medicine at the service of the human being to prevent or to cure pathologies. It is rather an instrumental way to satisfy unbridled ‘desire’.

Indeed, in his incarnation, when Jesus assumed a human body, he affirmed its great dignity. When he healed the sick, he restored their body to wholeness and wholesomeness. When, finally, he raised it gloriously from death (dust) in his resurrection, he confirmed its sublime character and destiny. Accordingly, Jesus Christ himself set an example for us to follow in how we should care for one another. He was for his contemporaries and he is for all those who believe in him today, a doctor of both body and soul. During his life, his teaching and his ministry, he was always concerned with the integral wellbeing of people, especially the most destitute and the sick: the starving, prisoners, migrants, travelers, the marginalized, but also the crippled, the deaf, the dumb, the lepers and even the dead.

In their commitment to care for the body and, thus, save human lives, doctors, especially those who are Christians, become collaborators with, indeed, extensions of Jesus: his hands, his touch and his voice, as instruments of healing and cure of their brothers and sisters. They are the presence of Christ with the sick for their healing and cure, but also for their solace and patient endurance when human science fails. In all of this, they help uphold the dignity of human life and body to glory of God (cf. Lk 11,4).

On 15-17 October 2022, the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (F.I.A.M.C.), met for their XXVI^th Congress at the Augustinianum in Rome, to consider the exercise of their profession under the above topic. They discussed the notion of ‘repair’ under the three aspects: medical, philosophical and theological. It became clear that the three aspects needed to be grounded in a genuine anthropology that is expressive of a transcendental humanism. Thus, the notion of ‘repair’ appeals to a conception of the body that derives its full significance from its transcendent character: a body not only created by God, but also redeemed in Christ. In this sense, the exercise of the medical profession is also a response to a vocation: serving a body created out of dust by God, but destined for redemption in Christ.

The fruit of their discussion is contained in this publication, as the collective work of distinguished authors, each specialized in his/her area of study, and desirous of serving their brothers and sisters of the human family from the abundance of their wisdom and skills!

Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson

[1]Cf. Laudato sì, nn. 106 ff.

[2]Caritas in veritate, n.45.