Christian Medical Fellowship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) is an evangelical, interdenominational organisation that links together Christian doctors and medical students in the UK. There are around 5,000 British doctors in all branches of medicine who are members of CMF, and also many medical student members. It was founded in 1949.
CMF is linked to similar organisations in many countries through the International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA). ICMDA has around 50 national movements linked to it. CMF, in its work with students, works closely with UCCF.
CMF's aims are "to unite Christian doctors and medical students in Christ", Evangelism, and the promotion of Christian values. The organisation publishes two journals, Triple Helix and Nucleus, and organises conferences. It regularly contributes to debate on issues of Medical ethics, for example, making submissions to the UK House of Lords enquiry into Physician-assisted suicide.
CMF generally promotes the Pro-Life case in ethical debates, such as those around abortion and euthanasia. More controversially, the CMF website contains articles on demonic possession [1], which is not a psychiatric or medical diagnosis recognised by either the DSM-IV or the ICD-10.
The position of the Christian Medical Fellowship has in the past been to actively encourage doctors and medical students to use the doctor-patient relationship to convert patients [2]. However, in response to complaints from patient groups and minority faith communities which view this as an abuse by some Evangelical doctors, the UK's General Medical Council has established in its most recent ethical regulations for doctors "Good Medical Practice", the principle that "You must not express to your patients your personal beliefs, including political, religious or moral beliefs, in ways that exploit their vulnerability or that are likely to cause them distress" [3]. The General Medical Council has additionally issued ethical regulations covering "Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice", which now explicitly prohibits proselytisation of patients by doctors, "You should not normally discuss your personal beliefs with patients unless those beliefs are directly relevant to the patient’s care. You must not impose your beliefs on patients, or cause distress by the inappropriate or insensitive expression of religious, political or other beliefs or views. Equally, you must not put pressure on patients to discuss or justify their beliefs (or the absence of them)"[4].
The Christian Medical Fellowship has also been the subject of complaint from minority faith communities, including a representation by several Hindu leaders to the House of Lords Select Committee on Religious Offences.[5]. The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement and the Gay and Lesbian Doctors and Dentists Association[6] have also strongly objected to the CMF's position against lesbian, gay and transgendered people, as expressed in a number of articles on the CMF website[7].
In October 2007, the Christian Medical Fellowship was accused by The Guardian newspaper of attempting to skew the balance of evidence presented at the Parliamentary review of the UK's laws on abortion due to a number of its senior members presenting evidence at the Parliamentary Select Committee without revealing their membership and seniority within the organisation.[8] [9]
The Christian Medical Fellowship is located at 6 Marshalsea Road in Southwark, south London.
