CMA’s Annual Conference: Focus on Sexuality, Identity and Trends to Alter our Bodies and Humanity

July 16, 2024

By Félix A. Rodríguez, MD 

The selection of themes to explore at CMA’s Annual Educational Conference (AEC) takes months of discernment and preparation. This year has been no exception.

When our team first conceived how the aspects of Christian anthropology would be presented on the second day of the conference, it was clear we had to delve deeply into notions of sexuality, identity and radical attempts at altering our very humanity. We did not envision that by 2024 we would be facing extreme cultural shifts in how some in the medical field would move towards new previously unthinkable standards of practice. The very definition of sex – the biological determination of maleness and femaleness – has been put into question, often with dangerous consequences to patients and even to health care professionals.

The AEC’s September 6 plenary sessions will start with psychiatrist Dr. David Chen discussing same sex attraction from a medical and scientific perspective and how it also relates to anthropologic and religious aspects which have been part of the Judeo-Christian tradition for two thousand years. This will be a very pertinent introduction to the rest of the day’s focus.

Nationally and internationally renowned pediatric endocrinologist, Dr. Paul Hruz, will then explore biological and physiological determinants of the sexual binary. This will provide important clarity to the safe and effective management of comorbidities associated with sex-gender discordance.

We invited medical ethics expert Dr. Paul Scherz to close our morning plenary sessions with a presentation exploring transhumanism, artificial intelligence, and brain-computer interface from both a practical and bioethical point of view. This is a significant talk as the development of these concepts devoid of a solid moral foundation may lead down the proverbial rabbit’s hole to medical technologies that will attempt to radically redefine what it is to be human.

In addition, there will be four simultaneous breakout sessions, all of them showcasing aspects of the pressing controversies of sexual identity and the concept of gender in medical care. These four talks promise to be excellent, so it is fortunate all of these will be available to registered participants for later viewing.

We have left the closure of the day to a very special panel presentation which has taken a great amount of work to bring to fruition. It most assuredly will be the most impactful session of this year’s conference. We will have the unique privilege to hear from individuals who have been treated with medical and surgical interventions following the gender affirmation model. These men and women will share with us their personal stories, and the unspeakable harm they have suffered with these therapies.

An evening social event will provide another opportunity to hear from these guests regarding their experiences, the challenges they have faced by de-transitioning, and the ongoing need for healing that they continue to face.

It is our hope that the health care professionals participating in these sessions will understand intimately the dire implications these paradigm shifts have brought to the practice of medicine, often inflicting irreparable damage. We also anticipate participants will leave with a firm resolve to take action with mercy, and to be witnesses to the truth as we pursue the care of men and women made in the image and likeness of God.

Board Member Dr. Rodríguez is the 93rd Annual Educational Conference Chair and member of the Catholic Social Teaching and Justice in Medicine Committee. He is also the president of the Palm Beach Guild and a member of the Florida CMA Board.