It’s a thumbs up! Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Renee Mirkes, Center for NaProEthics, Omaha, NE, and NaProTECHNOLOGY fellows Dr. Brooke Jemelka and Dr. David Parker submitted “NaProTECHNOLOGY and Conscientious OB/GYN Medicine” to the online American Medical Association’s peer-reviewed ethics journal, Virtual Mentor and it was accepted for the March 2013 publication. This publication is particularly significant since it represents the first time that NaProTECHNOLOGY is recognized in an AMA journal. Writing the article served as the perfect “special project” for the ethics seminar portion of the Paul VI Institute’s fellowship program and all are so pleased it came to this happy ending! You can review the article. Click here. Snapshots of the article follow here.
In the last 50 years, a surge of reproductive technology has revolutionized the practice of obstetrics and gynecology. First, effective hormonal contraceptives were made available to the public in the 1960s and, since their debut, have been used to treat almost every gynecologic abnormality [1]. Second, in the past 30 years, infertility has largely been managed using assisted reproductive technologies (ART), primarily intrauterine insemination (IUI) with recourse to in vitro fertilization (IVF) when insemination fails [2]. As a result, the modus operandi in mainstream gynecology has been to suppress, or to bypass, the woman’s fertility cycle.
Physicians and patients who (1) conscientiously object to the therapeutic use of hormonal contraceptives on the grounds that it subjects patients to ineffective treatment of symptoms rather than treating their underlying disease and (2) morally oppose the ART approach to infertility on the grounds that it jettisons a loving act of marital intercourse, the one context worthy of the conception of a new human being, are now able to pursue an alternative approach that accords with their consciences. NaProTECHNOLOGY (an acronym for natural procreative technology) is a woman’s health science that encompasses a unique medical and surgical application of gynecology. The foundation of NPT is the Creighton Model FertilityCare System (CrMS), see Figure 1, the only prospective and standardized means of monitoring the various patterns of a woman’s menstrual and fertility cycle for the natural regulation of fertility…Read more.
Similarly, if a physician conscientiously judges that he or she should not provide IUI, IVF, and their variations since these reproductive techniques wrest human procreation from the marital act of intercourse, he or she should avoid it. NPT medical and surgical infertility protocols, on the other hand, accord with these concepts of the personal and procreative dignity of the infertile couple, since they enable them to conceive within their own acts of intercourse.
So, the good news is this: It is possible for physicians who hold the beliefs we detail here to practice medically sound obstetrics and gynecology in line with their well-formed consciences and those of their patients. It is possible to provide medically effective reproductive interventions that also genuinely promote this concept of bodily-spiritual well-being for both patient and physician.
