Christmas message from AFCMA President

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
May the Peace and Joy of Christmas be with you!
We have just returned from the succesful 14th AFCMA Congress held in Hong Kong.
Congratulations to Dr. Peter Au Yeong, Dr. Michael Poon and the Hong Kong Guild of St. Luke, St. Cosmas and St. Damian for a job well done.The theme of the Congress was "Human Dignity in Modern Medicine".
At the Congress a new team of Council Members was elected. A Medical Mission Committee headed by Dr. John Lee to help in overseas mission emergencies was formed. Tha Bioethics Committee headed by Dr. Edna Monzon was also formed to look into and address issues that challenge our Church's teachings,etc.. Please look at our AFCMA web-site www.afcma.blogspot.com for the full list of Office Bearers. Special thanks to Dr. K.Y.Chong for looking after and updating our AFCMA web-site.
As the new President of AFCMA I hope that you will give me and our Council Members your fullest support so that together we will bring greater glory to God! During the next 4 years I hope that together we will continue to advocate for the dignity of vulnerable persons such as the unborn,elderly,disabled and the terminally ill,etc. as per the the 14th AFCMA Congress's resolution. Interestingly the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith from the Vatican has just issued the "Dignitas Personae" a document which addresses a range of bioethical issues including stem cell therapies,embryo experimentation and infertility treatments. It focusses on the dignity of the human embryo and promotes biomedical research that is respectful of the dignity of every human being and procreation.
Another matter that I wish to address during my term of office is the AFCMA country membership. At the just concluded AFCMA Congress His Eminence Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care exhorted us to reach out to those Asian countries which are not yet members of AFCMA. I sincerely hope that with God's grace we will be able to increase our country membership by at least one country when we meet for the next Congress in Indonesia in year 2012. If you know of anyone who can help us in this matter please let us know.Thank you.
As we waitwith joy to celebrate the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a Blessed and Merry Christmas andmay HIS light shine through us to guide us and act according to HIS WILL. Amen!
Yours Sincerely in Christ,
Dr. Freddie Loh
President AFCMA

!st Communication from our President

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We had just had the successful AFCMA Congress in Hong Kong. Grateful thanks to Dr. Peter Au yeong and Dr. Michael Poon and the rest of the Organising Committee.
I must thank you for having faith in me by electing me as the new AFCMA President. I am rather worried whether I can carry such a heavy responsibility. Nevertheless I am comforted by the fact that I have a strong Council consisting of experienced and young enthusiastic members to run the Association with me.
I must stress that we are all doing this for HIS Greater Glory. I pray that the Holy Spirit will envelope all of us, to empower us in our efforts and zeal in trying to continue with and improve on the good work that the previous AFCMA Council had achieved. We must also commit ourselves to adopting and following the Resolutions made at the 14th AFCMA Congress in showing respect for 'Human Dignity' by our words and actions.
Finally for logistic reason I think that it is best we communicate by e-mail.
Thank you and God Bless Everyone.
Yours Sincerely in Christ,
Dr. Freddie Loh

Petition against Pro Abortion Lobby

As a first step towards advocacy for the human dignity of the unborn, you can consider joining the following petition:

Pro-abortion lobbyists are scheduled to lobby the UN on 10 Dec 2008, the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to make abortion a human right. C-FAM are running a signature campaign to counter this. In the last 9 days over 50,000 have added their signatures and the total number is over a quarter of a million. Go to the following link and check them out:
http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.95/default.asp

14th AFCMA CONGRESS

The 14th Congress of the Asian Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (AFCMA) was successfully concluded in Hong Kong on 30th November 2008.

We would like to congratulate Dr FREDDIE LOH from Malaysia who was elected as the new President of the AFCMA during the 14th AFCMA congress. We pray that God will give him and his new office bearers the grace and wisdom to carry out their tasks for the next 4 years.

The Congress Resolution made at the conclusion of the meeting was:

This congress reaffirms that all human beings have an inalienable dignity proper to the human nature present in everyone. In respect for this human dignity, we pledge to:

1. disseminate the knowledge about the inalienability of human dignity
2. care for our patients in way that maximally preserves their dignity, and
3. advocate for the dignity of vulnerable persons, such as the unborn, elderly, disabled, and the terminally-ill,etc.

You may access details of the lectures given during the Congress at the following AFCMA website: www.doctor.catholic.org.hk/14afcma.html

Alternatively, you may go to our links section and click on "14th AFCMA Congress"