September 14, 2021
Catholic Medical Association (USA) Endorses Appropriate Documentation at the Time of Birth
Philadelphia, PA- September 14, 2021—As confusion increases around the reality of biological sex and gender ideology distorts reality, Catholic Medical Association (USA) endorses appropriate documentation at the time of birth.
Human beings reproduce sexually. By definition, to reproduce sexually requires the equal contribution of individuals with complimentary sexual differentiation, that is, males and females. While genetic or developmental conditions might make its discovery more complex in certain cases, biological sex is not something that can be assigned by the physician or society. Rather, it can only be ascertained and recognized.
As a commitment of professionalism, medical personnel bear a responsibility to their patients and their legitimate decision makers to accurately present information. This responsibility includes accurately ascertaining and then recording the biological sex of individual patients. Such accuracy and honesty is a clinically necessary part of promoting the health and well-being of all patients equally, without discrimination, because accurate information is essential to the informed decision making process. Accurate information allows treatments to be tailored to the specific biological conditions, health needs and interests of the patient. For medical professionals, being allowed to discuss the patient’s objective biological and anatomical conditions with accuracy and honesty is a fundamental element of professional integrity and necessary for high, person centered quality care. Withholding or misrepresenting basic health information harms the patient-provider relationship in a fundamental way.
Public policy benefits society when it supports the integrity of this relationship by fostering the professional rights and responsibilities that physicians have to their patients and vice versa. In accord with their responsibilities for honesty and accuracy, physicians have a right to receive accurate and honest information from patients, other professionals in the medical system, and the public authority as well. Public policy that obfuscates or hampers the accurate communication of vital information – such as removing the recognition of a person’s biologic sex from public documents for political or activism purposes – ultimately puts patients at risk for medically inappropriate interventions and undermines the integrity of the physician-patient relationship.
