Catholic Medical Association sets end-of-life forum for Nashville

By The Message Staff

The Catholic Medical Association has scheduled an end-of-life forum for Sept. 25 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville. The forum features experts from across the country who will focus on the field of palliative medicine and how it authentically provides care for those with serious illnesses and at the end of life with dignity and love, in ways that are completely consistent with Catholic Church teaching.

Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, who is the CMA’s episcopal advisor, noted recently in a letter to his brother bishops that there are now several U.S. states and the District of Columbia that have explicitly legalized assisted suicide.

“It is clearly understood by both sides of this debate that the medical profession’s voice and actions are critical determinants of whether assisted suicide is approved . . . in a state,” Bishop Conley wrote. “And when a state medical society changes its position from opposition to neutral, it is usually a game-changer in favor of legalization, as was the case in California, Colorado and Washington, D.C.

“A critical defense against the assisted-suicide movement is to equip healthcare providers, administrators, ethicists and pastoral-care providers to better meet the spiritual, ethical and clinical needs of those facing serious or terminal illness” while remaining faithful to Church teaching.

More information on the forum is available on the CMA website at https://www.cathmed.org/events/annual-educational-conference/
end-life-eol-forum/.