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The Catholic Medical Association (CMA), the largest association of Catholic individuals in healthcare, held its 92nd Annual Educational Conference in Phoenix, Arizona. At the four-day event, which drew more than 700 health professionals and medical students, the CMA presented a new paper that outlines the association’s reasons for opposing irreversible medical intervention for those with gender dysphoria.
The paper, which is available to read on the CMA website, first cautioned against the use of hormones and surgery to address such issues. Instead, the CMA argues that cases of gender dysphoria should be “treated psychiatrically with counseling.” They stated that an attempt to treat physically something that should be addressed mentally “is not authentic health care.”
In continuation, the religious-based association of Catholic medical professionals noted the connection between the body and the soul, and suggested that gender reassignment can harm this connection:
“Sex reassignment does not respect the fundamental order of the human person with a body-and-soul unity... The ideology underlying [this gender dysphoria treatment] is harmful since it declares that people can remake themselves according to how they feel.”
Overall, the CMA made it clear that it “strongly disagrees with current medical interventions in gender dysphoria treatment for minors.” The group especially called for caution when treating minors with surgical procedures. It called these operations “mutilating” and warned against the long term and irreversible consequences of such rash action.
In a statement to the College Fix, CMA President Craig Treptow clarified that the CMA does not suggest that those who suffer from gender dysphoria should not be treated. Instead, he reiterated that the CMA has reservations about the current protocols for such treatment, especially for minors. Treptow wrote:
“Catholic physicians do not deny care,” Dr. Treptow wrote. "They offer holistic, life-affirming, evidence-based health care.”
Read the full paper from the Catholic Medical Association on gender dysphoria at the CMA’s official website.
