Medical Education International January 2010 Progress Notes
Partnering with the Jamaican Christian Medical
Fellowship
Wherever MEI teams serve, they seek not only to teach medicine and
dentistry, but to partner with local churches, believers and Christian
workers to encourage them and spur them on in their work (Heb
10:24). Most often, MEI gets requests to teach where Christians
are in the minority. But at times, God gives MEI opportunities to
help fellow believers and colleagues achieve goals and meet needs in
Christian-majority nations. Jamaica is such a place. Its
capital Kingston is the location of the medical school, teaching
hospital and school of public health and community medicine of the
University of the West Indies. Its impact is vast, since it trains
students from 15 English speaking Caribbean countries.
|
|
An explicitly Christian nation, Jamaica has its own Christian Medical
Fellowship (CMF), which works closely with the Jamaican Lawyers
Christian Fellowship in public policy to maintain Christian values and
Hippocratic medical standards. Desiring to expand its efforts and
meet the needs of Christian medical students and doctors, Jamaican CMF
leaders invited MEI to teach bioethics at the medical school and share
US CMDA practices and programs with CMF physician and student leaders
wishing to get ideas on ways it might expand its own work. Last
November, Dr. Shari Falkenheimer, CMDA member and Fellow of the Center
for Bioethics and Human Dignity (CBHD), responded to this request. She
gave a public lecture on ethical issues related to pediatric genetic
screening in the Main Medical Lecture
|
|
Theatre, led an interactive session on The Christian Faith and
Worldview: Implications for Medical Policy and Practice at the quarterly
CMF meeting and met with many government and university medical and
legal leaders. While there, Dr. Falkenheimer also spoke to about
150 middle and high school students on how her relationship with Christ
played a vital role in her life and career. Amazingly medical
student leaders asked, not for more fellowship meetings or ministry to
them, but for faculty to teach them how to better defend their faith and
ethical beliefs from a Christian worldview! The CMA plans not only
to meet the students’ request, but is hosting a bioethics
conference this month. Again MEI will play a role as US CMDA
member, CBHD Senior Fellow, and nationally recognized medical ethicist,
Dr. Robert Orr, will provide the keynote address! Will you pray for
Dr. Orr and this conference to greatly impact our colleagues in Jamaica
and the Caribbean?
