Professor Dominique Baron Lambert, Ph.D. in Physics and in Philosophy, University of Namur and Royal Academy of Belgium.
To think of reparation by giving back its importance to human nature and integral ecology; to think of a formation of future doctors that articulates reparation and accompaniment with transcendence as a horizon.
The Congress of the FIAMC has highlighted the necessity and even the urgency of thinking, in medicine, about reparation with human nature and the intrinsic dignity of the human person as a central reference, as well as the demands of justice and the common good. This Congress has shown how it is possible to combine the high technical standards and the most recent advances of contemporary medicine with an approach that fully respects a vision of Man based on the unity and dignity of the person, thought of as a being of gift, on the respect of the links through which he is inserted in the environment and in the social fabric and on his transcendence, as a creature loved for himself by God.
The Congress brought out the idea that the formation of the Christian physician
(1) – must integrate the most advanced techniques of bodily repair when appropriate. Precise criteria must be studied to know when and how it is appropriate to repair the human being (these criteria must take into account respect for the dignity of the human being, the age of the patients, social justice, etc.).
(2) – But the training of future doctors must also and additionally initiate them to accompaniment which gives the poorest, most fragile person his or her rightful place… Learning to recognize humanity and to accompany people when no medical repair is possible is a major challenge in the training of doctors and, of course, of Christian doctors. Without this learning to recognize and defend the most disfigured and fragile humanity, there will only be medical technique or technological excess. One of the challenges of our conference was to explore the possible ways of such a formation, where the doctor, following Christ, will come to put himself at the feet of the suffering person to simply spend time with him, so that by this gift can be restored this immanent and transcendent link which provides true life.
