The Catholic Medical Association of Ireland (CMAI) will host its 8th Annual Conference on Saturday, November 22, 2025 in the St Charles Centre, Mount Argus, Harold’s Cross. The speakers include Bishop Kevin Doran, Bishop of Elphin, Éamon Ó Cuív, former TD and Minister, Dr David Albert Jones, of St Mary’s University, and formerly of the Anscombe Centre in Oxford, and Dr Marta Rocchi of DCU. The talks will address various bioethical issues, including the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in medicine, organ donation, assisted dying, and the role of a Doctor in this changing landscape.
Artificial Intelligence in medicine
As recently as two weeks ago, a conference took place in the Vatican, hosted jointly by the Pontifical Academy for Life and the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations.
They addressed the topic of AI and medicine, and perhaps not surprisingly, there were a variety of views expressed, some more optimistic than others.
We reduce the possibility of “encounter”, something he spoke frequently of, and which is certainly at the very heart of medical practice”
Following the event, the closing statement included the paragraph “it is essential that IA be an aid that improves clinical judgement, supports diagnostic accuracy, and improves patient outcomes, without ever replacing the physician’s expertise, empathy or responsibility… Decisions regarding patient treatment and the burden of responsibility they entail must always remain the responsibility of humans and must never be delegated to AI”.
Pope Leo, in a statement, said AI could exacerbate “anti-human ideologies” in medicine”.
However, Fr Roberto Pasolini OFM Cap, newly installed as Preacher to the Papal Household, succeeding Cardinal Cantalamessa, whose Degree, before answering his vocation, was in Computer Science, was perhaps a little more optimistic, saying “AI will give us an even better understanding of what makes us human”.
Prof. Therese Lysaught warned us against “humanising technology or mechanising the human being.
As Daniel Daly, of Boston College, explained, “AI should free us to do the works of mercy, it doesn’t free us from the works of mercy”.
In a medical landscape which is moving ever more rapidly towards protocol and algorithm-based interventions, which brings both benefit and peril, we must always remember the words of Pope Francis that we should never “sacrifice humanity on the altar of efficiency”.
As Pope Francis might add, the risk is that we reduce the possibility of “encounter”, something he spoke frequently of, and which is certainly at the very heart of medical practice.
Organ Donation
On the face of it, organ donation appears an unqualified good. Indeed, Pope John Paul strongly endorsed organ donation as “a noble act of love” it builds “an authentic culture of life”. This of course refers to voluntary organ donation, done with explicit consent, and without coercion. Many more people are on transplant waiting lists than there are organs available, and of course this creates a pressure.
In those situations where a living person is donating an organ, the bioethics are relatively straightforward.
In those cases however when the organs are harvested from the deceased, the situation becomes far more complex. Essentially, the trade off is that the better the blood supply to the organ to be transplanted, the better the outcome for the recipient. However, the devil is in the detail, and, from a legal and ethical perspective, where the crucial and critical decision lies is how to decide when somebody is dead. There are different ways, both brain death, and circulatory failure, but these are nowhere near as straightforward as they might appear. An emerging trend in some of the States of the United States is that if somebody is declared dead from a circulatory episode, such as cardiac arrest, they are then mechanically perfused with oxygenated blood to keep the organs alive, while clamping the blood supply to the brain, ensuring that it does not survive. This of course, leads to organs which are well perfused and healthy, but at the risk of muddying the waters as to when death occurs. Catholic teaching is very clear as to the “dead Donor rule”, and absolutely unequivocal that harvesting organs can not be the cause of death. It runs the risk of becoming a form of utilitarianism, which runs contrary to recognising the sanctity of life.
Assisted Dying
Ireland currently does not have an assisted dying law. An Oireachtas Committee established in 2023, recommended in March 2024 that the government introduce legislation. There were a number of dissenting voices. As it transpired, this recommendation has not yet been acted on. Nonetheless, the direction of travel and sentiment is ominous.
Hope is not an emotion, it is an act of the will, a decision, to look to brighter days ahead, even when it stretches the imagination”
People will recognise clear similarities with the Repeal of the 8th Amendment Campaign. Essentially, the language it invoked is one of “compassion”, the “hard cases” are brought in to play, the “exceptional case” is used, and, once accepted, and then momentum builds. Those who disagree are painted as oppressors, and generally termed “far right”, and even “extremists”.
As we draw towards the end of this Jubilee Year of Hope, it is heartening, when we look towards the US and the UK, that the Catholic Medical Associations are reporting significant increase in interest, and, among a younger cohort, membership, and that is to be welcomed. As yet, this is a development we haven’t seen in Ireland. Nonetheless, we are reminded by the Venerable Fulton Sheen that hope is not an emotion, it is an act of the will, a decision, to look to brighter days ahead, even when it stretches the imagination. That, we continue to do.
