Faith and Medical Ethics: Losing Our Dignity

Losing Our Dignity: How Secularized Medicine Is Undermining Fundamental Human Equality
by Charles C. Camosy

I'm considering a Faith and Modern Life class that would be a kind of intersection between government and policy and faith. My Catholic theologian husband said if I wanted to talk about medical ethics, this book should be on the list.

Dr. Camosy explains how the philosophy of secularized medicine developed, and how that philosophy is not neutral in making medical decisions.

...here's the bottom line: it is impossible to care for the health of a single human being (much less design and work within a health-care system with limited resources that must yet provide for millions) without incorporated such goods and values and purposes. (p. 39)

Then he presents studies around famous cases to show how that philosophy leads to poor decisions for vulnerable patients. There are chapters about Jahi McMath, Terri Schiavo, "Roe Baby," and Alfie Evans. There's also a chapter on patients with dementia.

New Jersey law requires insurance companies to continue medical care even if religious beliefs of the family conflict with medical professionals. The executive director of the group that wrote the law, Alan Weisbard, said:

[T]he people who have done the deep and conceptual thinking about brain death are people with high I.Q.s, who tremendously value their cognitive abilities--people who believe that the ability to think, to plan, and to act in the world are what make for meaningful lives. But there is a different tradition that looks much more to the body. (pp. 50-51)

He concludes with some ideas about what we can do to reverse the concerning trends as individuals, communities, and society in the short and long term. 

Dr. Camosy doesn't always present the one and only answer for difficult situations. He emphasizes that each situation requires careful consideration of the individual, the family, and the resources available but always with the needs and dignity of the most vulnerable patients given the priority.

Medical science and tests can be used to determine whether death has taken place, but deciding what death is in the first place can be determined only by asking theological questions. (p. 47)

I think this book is essential reading for anyone in medicine or anyone considering a career in a medical field, especially for Catholics. It's actually a great book for any Catholic. Highly recommended.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. I purchased the book. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links.

Pondering the Marvels of Creation: Great Catholic Scientists

Great Catholic Scientists: Discoveries and Lives of Faith

Dr. Guy Consolmagno, SJ and Dr. Michelle Francl-Donnay

This is a wonderful little audiobook, almost like a collection of podcasts. Dr. Consolmagno and Dr. Francl-Donnay chat together about science and religion through the stories of Catholic scientists from all over the world and throughout history. They are collected in twelve chapters of 20-25 minutes each, focused on areas like medicine or mathematics, but freely wandering in the discussions.

Some of the featured scientists are saints. Some are famous. All of them are examples of real people doing science - showing up at work and persevering through mundane day-to-day activities.

Dr. Consolmango and Dr. Francl-Donnay talk often of the characteristics that make a good Catholic scientist (spoiler alert - they are the same ones that make a good scientist), but they also talk about some of the characteristics of a Catholic that provide a foundation of education, learning, and curiosity which allows a scientist to explore God's creation with joy. There are instances where their faith allowed a scientist to ask questions and be comfortable in areas of uncertainty.

I have assigned these lectures to my daughter, currently in eighth grade, at the beginning of her year, as a kind of introduction to science and how to think like a scientist. It's a lovely sweep through the history of science that touches on a wide variety of areas. So many secular books on science begin with an assumption that a person of faith cannot also be a person of science, an erroneous but pervasive assumption. This audiobook provides one more layer of protection for a student who can then more easily discard mistaken ideas like that as he or she is reading.

My daughter is listening to them straight through, but I think any individual lecture could be enjoyed without listening to all of them, and there's no real reason they must be in this particular order. Though I think the authors tried to follow a chronological order, there is a lot of overlap on the lectures. I've made a little list below in case someone wants to choose just one or two or wants to schedule them within a particular study.

Chapter 1 (4 min intro) and Chapter 2: What Makes a Scientist Catholic?
(Hildegard of Bingen, Georges Lemaître)
This is probably the lecture that most directly addresses the apparent disconnect between faith and reason. Instead, it suggests our faith leads directly to exploring the world and the universe, God's creation. Science as a discipline only makes sense if the universe is not random. Dr. Consolmango and Dr. Francl-Donnay find great joy and delight in their scientific studies.

Chapter 3: Overthrowing Aristotle
(Hildegard of Bingen, Albert the Great, José de Acosta, Athanasius Kircher)
In this chapter, they explain how changes in the world (stability, improvements in communications, large enough populations so some people can study just for the sake of knowledge, etc.) led to the sudden growth of "science." Catholic monasteries and universities were an integral part of this culture.

Chapter 4: Into the Depths of the Atom
(Henri Becquerel, George de Hevesy, Roger Boscovich, Amedeo Avogadro)
As Catholics, we already believe in the unseen and do not fear the mysterious. We also have faith that our experiences tell us something meaningful about the world. This chapter talks about mysteries, and how the most interesting answers and discoveries are the ones that lead to more questions.

Chapter 5: What Is Life?
(René Haüy, Louis Pasteur, Gregor Mendel, Marthe Gautier and Jérôme Lejeune)
This chapter begins with a discussion about a philosophical (and scientific) definition of life. It touches on the humanness of scientists. They have the same trials, controversies, and need to make a living as anyone else.

Chapter 6: Materia Medica
(Hildegard of Bingen, Georg Joseph Kamel, Pierre Joseph Pelletier, John Clark Sheehan, René Laennec, Ethelbert Blatter)
In this chapter, they discuss how a fallen world leads to illness but that God's creation and his gift to us of reason allow us to discover and develop methods of healing. Over the centuries, the Jesuits in particular have had the opportunities to explore the world, learning from other cultures, and regular communications with others to share that knowledge.

Chapter 7: Merciful Science
(Laudato Si', Mary Poonen Lukose, Bernardo Alberto Houssay, Carl Ferdinand Cori and Gerty Theresa Cori)
Pope St. John Paul II said that science and theology work together, like two wings that lift us to the contemplation of truth. We have obligations beyond just doing the science, always asking ourselves "What are the implications for the most vulnerable?"

Chapter 8: God’s Language
(Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Baron Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Pope Sylvester II)
This chapter focuses on mathematics and the question "how do you describe the world using mathematical equations?" For some, math is a kind of prayer, a focus on truth as the greatest earthly joy. “Mathematics forces you to confront the infinite.”

Chapter 9: Explorers of a New Space
(Sisters of the Holy Child Mary: Sisters Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri; Mary Kenneth Keller, Mary Celine Fasenmyer, Francesco Faà di Bruno, Roberto Busa)
This chapter describes how an ambitious project to create a catalog of every known star begun in 1887 required the creation of new strategies and ways of thinking that, over time, evolved into digital humanities. Religious life and the support of the Church allow space and freedom for work to be done that doesn't fall into a three year grant cycle.

Chapter 10: Taking the Temperature of the World
(Jean Leurechon, Nicolas Steno, André-Marie Ampère, Alessandro Volta)
Communicating about science and what you've learned about the world depends on a system of measurement that is consistent from place to place and person to person. This chapter shares about some Catholics who devised reliable methods of quantification, thereby making more scientific discoveries possible.

Chapter 11: Not Where but What
(Angelo Secchi, James Macelwane, Eduard Heis, Agnes Mary Clerke)
This chapter looks at scientists who look beyond the earth's atmosphere or deep into the earth, beyond what we can measure directly. Many scientists never become famous, working in hidden lives at building a foundation of slow painstaking work for greater understanding. “Wherever your niche is, there’s something for you to do.”

Chapter 12: Our Place in the Universe
(Maximilian Hell, Johann Georg Hagen, Georges Lemaître)
This chapter shares the stories of three notable priest astronomers that gave us a sense of where we are in the universe: the scale of the solar system, the position of stars, the motions beneath our feet, and the origin of the universe itself.

Chapter 13: There is always more to know
(Marie Lavoisier, Blaise Pascal, René Descartes)
This final chapter summarizes many of the themes regarding faith and science that surface, submerge, and resurface in earlier chapters. Faith and science are not big books of facts that might agree or disagree with each other. Faith and science both allow us to "grapple with mysteries, the mysteries of how and why we came to be." It includes a litany of all the men and women of God (and science) included in the audiobook.

I have received nothing in exchange for this post. I purchased this audiobook from Audible. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links.

Modern Medicine: Ten Drugs

Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine

by Thomas Hager

This book was an audiobook of the day, I think, and caught my eye. I thought it might be a good choice for a high school level supplemental book for chemistry or biology.

Mr. Hager is a journalist and therefore often emphasizes the most awful and sensational aspects of his stories including suicide and violent attacks like the first recorded murder due to a date-rape drug. The chapter on the discovery of the birth control pill assumes the vast benefits of the discovery, though it was not a surprising or unexpected portrayal. Part of the same chapter covers the development of Viagra and an almost raunchy description of a conference presentation.

The book is almost unbiased. It attacks the pharmaceutical industry a bit, though not as much as others might and qualified with commendations for brilliant discoveries. He repeatedly emphasizes that the pharmaceutical companies are very good at doing what they are supposed to do: discover and successfully market medications. They are in the business to make a profit and many of them do it very well.

The best chapters are those on opioids and statins. Writing about opioids, Mr. Hager provides a historical context for the current crisis. He explains the chemical interactions of the drugs and emphasizes their inherent and massive propensity for addiction, exploring how those characteristics within our current societal and medical structures are leading to the current epidemic in modern America.

The chapter on statins discusses how to study and assess medical information as it applies to risks and benefits in our own lives.

Put simply, today's large drug companies are great at finding evidence for therapies that promise profits, pretty good at downplaying evidence that gets in the way, and grand masters at promoting their products to physicians and the public.

Mr. Hager's deep interest in statins started with a letter he received from his insurance company, suggesting he contact his doctor about a prescription.

It was all numbers being crunched and form letters being pumped out. It was health care by algorithm. The result: a physician I've never met recommending that I consider taking a new prescription drug, potentially for the rest of my life. 

He shares the research he did and conversations he had with his doctor about the risks and benefits of statins, not just in theory, but as applied directly to his own life.

The book doesn't really have enough science to add to our chemistry studies. As for biology, it isn't compelling enough to be better than Microbe Hunters or Flu. I did find the two chapters on opioids and statins excellent options for our health course, which First Son is completing now, in tenth grade. (I have scheduled it to coincide with an anatomy course for biology.)

• Chapter 8: The Enchanted Ring - I particularly want my children to read this chapter because it makes the addictive potential of opioids obvious. They are much better off if they never take them at all, and certainly never in a non-medical setting.
• Chapter 9: Statins: A Personal Story - on assessing risks and benefits in modern medicine, which I think will be more and more valuable as we are faced with increasing numbers of medication available for non-curable conditions.

I have received nothing in exchange for this honest review. Links to Amazon are affiliate links.