Pope marks 50th anniversary of medical faculty at Gemelli teaching hospital
Pope Benedict on Thursday visited the Agostino Gemelli Teaching Hospital, located
on Rome’s Monte Mario hill, to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment
of the medical faculty. The Gemelli serves as the official hospital for the Pope,
and a suite of reserved rooms is always available for him. It is the official teaching
hospital of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, and also houses the university’s
Bioethics Centre. The Centre trains people in “clinical bioethics”, whose practitioners
advise patients and doctors on what procedures can be followed in treating an illness.
Bioethicists
are trained in a wide variety of ways, including watching medical procedures being
performed, and speaking to patients facing often difficult decisions.
“There
is a really wide range of personal contact,” said Joseph Meaney, a doctoral candidate
in the Bioethics programme.
“You definitely meet with the patients. Sometimes
the patients are either mentally incompetent or even unconscious. At that point,
you meet with family members, or those who have medical guardianship over those patients.
You meet with the doctors. It is very important actually for a good bioethicist to
know some of the science - what the medical procedures are and what the implications
are – but also to have a certain physical contact and counselling even with these
persons who are grieving in a very serious situation.”
Meaney told Vatican
Radio there is one department for which he has a special affection.
“The Gemelli
has been pioneering a lot of work in treating the unborn child in the womb,” said
Meaney, who is also Director of International Coordination at Human Life International.
“It’s wonderful to have this kind of view of the preborn child as a patient, as opposed
to as a problem.”
Listen to the full interview by Charles Collins with
Joseph Meaney: