Medical Students Attend Fertility Care Professionals Meeting

Students studying to become doctors were among those who attended the annual conference of the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals last week.

The Aug. 7-10 event was held in New Orleans, with the theme "New Hope New Life New Orleans."

This was the group's 32nd annual conference, and some 300 people attended.

A line-up of speakers aimed to enhance the knowledge of FertilityCare Practitioners, nurses, physicians, other health care professionals and clergy by addressing a variety of topics relevant to the Creighton Model of NFP, NaPro Technology, natural methods of fertility regulation and allied fields.

Speakers included Chris Baglow, PhD, who explored the harmony between the Christian faith and modern science. Dr. Philip Boyle of the Galway Clinic in Ireland addressed the use of Naltrexone in working with patients of infertility and many other diseases. Dr. Thomas Hilgers, founder of NaPro Technology and the Creighton Model of fertility awareness, provided updates regarding how NaPro Technology is being used to benefit patients in clinical settings. Dr George Delgado of Culture of Life Family Services in California addressed a new protocol that has been shown to stop an abortion even after a woman had taken "the abortion pill."

The retired archbishop of New Orleans, Archbishop Alfred Hughes, suggested to the participants that their endeavors parallel in some sense the efforts of Pope John Paul II to propose an alternate vision to what was accepted by society of his time.

Karol Wojtyla perceived the weaknesses in the Marxism that was mandated education in Poland, the archbishop said, and then developed an alternative vision in a competent, attractive manner. 

"He proposed Christian solidarity in the face of atheistic socialism. He proposed a Church committed to human rights as an alternative to a totalitarian state. He proposed an understanding of the human body, rooted in God’s creation while remaining realistic about the original fall from grace, but renewed and elevated by redemption in the face of materialistic and hedonistic treatment of the body," Archbishop Hughes noted. "Eventually, this alternative vision, founded in truth, contributed to the collapse of communism in Poland and Eastern Europe."

The prelate suggested that efforts to "professionalize natural methodologies and technologies for fertility care offer a similar competent, attractive, and persuasive alternative in fertility medicine to the prevailing approaches to fertility services which neither respect the dignity of human life nor the nobility of human sexuality."

"What you are developing, exploring, refining, and promoting is radical in the best sense of this term," Archbishop Hughes said. "The word 'radical' comes from the Latin word 'radix,' root. You are respecting the very root of good health care by respecting nature, healing wounded nature, and enhancing imperfect nature."

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On ZENIT's Web page:

Archbishop Hughes' address: www.zenit.org/en/articles/archbishop-s-address-to-fertility-care-professionals

On the Net:

American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals: http://www.aafcp.org/index.htm