About Me...
My name is Jorge Arturo Cespedes Segura. I am 29 years Old.
I am from Heredia Cost
a Rica.
I Am seminarian of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis in Tennesse.
I studied college seminary in Colombia and Medicine in Bolivia.
Currently I am studing theology first in Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in Saint Louis MO.
This is the Academic Web Site of Jorge Arturo Cespedes
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Pope John Paul II in Costa Rica 1983 My Parish in Flores, Heredia, Costa Rica
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Our Bishop: Terry Steib SVD
SEMPER FIDELIS
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Commentaries? jcespedes@kenrick.edu
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These articles are personal reflections about interesting topics. Thanks for your commentaries.
A continuación les presento una serie de articulos fruto de mi reflexion personal. Estos estan basados en materias de interes y actualidad. Comentarios son siempre bienvenidos.
1- Faith and medical practice.
Faith and medical practice
Jorge Arturo Cespedes MD
The world changes very quickly. Each day new discoveries arise from studies in laboratories. These advances have a profound impact on the quality of life. Medicine is one of the aspects which show incredible development. This is a completely new era with transplants of organs and tissues. New drugs have made possible more effective treatment. Investigations in genetics reveal to humanity incredible possibilities. Knowledge in the medical world is increasing a lot each day. In this development, not everything is positive. Each day patients complain due to his or her handling by doctors. Frequently, the recommendation that “physicians must to bring competent services with compassion and moreover respect for the human person” is forgotten. [1] Sometimes, people say that they become just numbers when they are in hospitals. For some the incredible fight against illness professionals is more important than the pursuit of quality of life. It is this battle against death which frequently becomes the core of medical practice without respect to other vital aspects. It is frequent not to speak about the death or the necessary preparation for the most the human event. It is frequently today to forget the relation between faith and medical practice, these are not opposites but complementary and the integration of both human realities made it possible a more integral handling of the human person.
With the advance of new medical discoveries, more challenges have arises in the medical practice. Some problems in the care of patients are consequences of the misunderstanding of ethical obligations by physicians. Today, we are witnessing abortion just with the justification of the” right to choose”. It is frequent that investigations in the field of genetics become a violation of the necessary respect for the human life. It is in this sense that the famous physician Tinsley Harrison said that “no greater opportunity, responsibility, or obligation can fall to the lot of a human being than to become a physician. In the care of the suffering, the physician needs technical skill, scientific knowledge, and human understanding.” [2] It is easy to see that most of the mistakes in contemporary medical practice are related to what can be called “human misunderstanding.” When Faith and transcendence disappear from medical formation and professional exercise, the entire practice is changed, and the final objectives modified. It is for this reason that is necessary a serious reflection centered in basic concepts related with human existence which can radically altered the medical practice.
All reflection in medical ethics must start with the thought of our coming into the world. “In God’s hand are the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind”. [3] Fecundity is the climactic moment of the process in which human beings become co-participants with God in the marvelous work of creation. From this moment, spermatozoid and ovule become a reality completely different and unique. The new zygote is now a human person, not a potential human person. This zygote has a determined sex and contains all the genetic information in 46 chromosomes. "From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a new life is begun which is neither that of the father nor of the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with his own growth. It would never be made human if it were not human already. To this perpetual evidence ... modern genetic science brings valuable confirmation. It has demonstrated that, from the first instant, the program is fixed as to what this living being will be: a man, this individual-man with his characteristic aspects already well determined.” [4] Modern discussions are centered in defined the moment in which an embryo becomes a human person. Some persons say that this event happens in the third month of pregnancy while others put as a mark the moment in which the heart starts to work. These different affirmations lack sense and only look to justified abortion. If the embryo becomes a human person only in the third month of conception, abortion would be ethical before this time. The scientific evidence of a radical transformation of spermatozoid and ovule in the same moment of the conception is the definitive proof that it is in this moment when a human being is created. God loves all human beings. And he has a unique plan of salvation for each of us. He created us for love. It is in this sense that abortion has become one of the most terrible crimes against the human person. With this action, we are stopping the possibility that this human being has to choose freely for God and realize in his life this plan of salvation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that “human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the creator.” [5] Is this the critical concept: Human life comes from God, who loves us from always and who has a special plan of salvation. Human life does not finish with death. Catholic Faith believes that this event is a new door that allows an encounter with God in a direct and personal way. These essential concepts of God and his action in human life and history can change radically our medical practice.
The medical exercise is not just a practice with patients who become numbers, as each person is important. Despite their economical or social status, all are children of God. For this reason, everyone deserves consideration. Medical practice must not be considered as more of a fight against death than as an effort to ensure the quality of life and quality of death. This does not mean that it ought to ignore suffering, for the health professional can become a person who helps others to find a new sense to their problems. “The effort to rediscover the concept of human being in medicine is necessary. It concept must involve a more unified conception of the illness focusing the efforts not only in the body but in the spirit. This attitude favors more ethical attention to the person.” [6] To physicians who work under the light of faith, death can become not the final step of a way, but the starting of a new life. For this reason, our efforts can be oriented to address this event with a new meaning of the most real of our experiences: death.
Most of the misunderstanding of ethics in medical practice is motivated by a lack of faith in medical personnel. It is in this sense that Pope John Paul II said: “Looking for a true ethics depends moreover on the concept of medicine that exist in the physicians. It is necessary to know if the medicine is at the service of the human person, their dignity and that the human with his unique importance and transcendence.” [7] Faith gives a new meaning to the concept of human beings as created and loved by God from conception until to eternity. This motivates a profound respect for human life and opens a new panorama to the medical exercise which must be centered not only in the effort to prolong life, but in the opportunity to increase the quality of life.
jcespedes@kenrick.edu
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