Interview:

Dr. Pedro Tabuenca

Dean, School of Medicine, Universidad Adventista del Plata

AIMS: Would you please tell us what you are doing at the School of Medicine at UAP?

TABUENCA: The President of Argentina, Dr. Carlos Menem, requested to have a National Committee of Medical Bioethics formed. In that Committee are represented the medical and scientific research entities as well as religions. We were summoned to the "Pink House" (the equivalent of the White House) and President Menem delivered to members of the National Committee of Medical Bioethics a diploma and credentials. Later we were summoned to the Ministry of Health to hold the first organizational meeting. The Ministry of Health suggested that the persons representing religions form one group as an ecumenical subgroup of the Commission. I suggested calling it the Multi-Religion Commission. In the next meeting of all the members at the Ministry of Health, many subcommittees were created to discuss subjects like abortion, trans-sexuality, homosexuality, cloning, and the inequity of access of medical care by different socio-economic levels.

AIMS: Any other news related to the UAP School of Medicine?

TABUENCA: We were not able to attend the meetings of the Association of Medical Schools of Argentina, because the meetings were always held on Saturday. I talked to the President and asked him to discuss the possibility of changing the meeting day. The next meeting was the first to be held on Friday, and he specifically stated that we were meeting on Friday to accommodate the Adventist School of Medicine.

I would suggest that we Adventists should have it very clear in our minds that creation is clearly defensible with the Bible and science. I have come to this conclusion after defending these principles at different scientific levels.

AIMS: Dr. Tabuenca, how much do you think the Lord wants us to do in the medical field?

TABUENCA: Jesus gave us the example. God was the Physician in the Garden of Eden when He indicated measures that were, unfortunately, not accepted, and it was a preventive measure: "Do not eat of this tree." And we are still suffering the consequences. And, of course, we have the earthly ministry of Jesus the Great Example. He not only preached, taught and healed, but He ordered His disciples to do the same all the time. Medical work as much as the educational and evangelistic work within the church is in total harmony with God's character and the ministry of Jesus and the order He gave us.

AIMS: How much are we doing as a church?

TABUENCA: I believe that we can do much better than what we are doing. I believe we are reaching a point in time where far from minimizing and reducing, it is predicted that the medical missionary work will grow. I can already see that God is already sending us young men and women of whom many are really eager to serve as missionaries wherever it is necessary. I believe we are training missionary physicians. Of course, I believe we can do better, but this is our beginning, and we thank God for the way things are going.

AIMS: What do you consider to be a missionary physician today?

TABUENCA: We consider a missionary physician to be one who by the grace of God and the help of the Spirit tries to do what Jesus did; he tries to heal the sick and tries to teach him the way of salvation.

I believe that the missionary physician is somebody who lives in harmony with Jesus, who enjoys His communion, listens to His Word, who cannot miss the opportunity to transmit it to his patients who are always needing it, and he enjoys transmitting, being contagious of this Spirit, because he knows it is going to be good for them. That is what a missionary physician is.

AIMS: What kind of association should these missionary physicians have with the church at large or with medical institutions of the organization?

TABUENCA: It doesn't matter who he works with or how much money he makes. It depends only on his relationship with God and the mandate given by God to His disciples.

AIMS: With what salary?

TABUENCA: With the salary given by the Division for their denominational workers. Today a missionary physician can work in his own office, in his own surgical suite in an institution or the organization or any other and be a light in the darkness and can also be working in an Adventist institution and be a cloud in the middle of the light. It does not depend on the environment or the earnings but on his personal life and his ability to transfer it to the patients.

AIMS: By what you just said, the official Adventist stand on Adventist institutions and missionary physicians would require some change? Or are we bound to see more private institutions run by Adventist physicians or, worse yet, do you think they may decide that running medical institutions is not their business?

TABUENCA: Well, I am thinking that in our part of the world the change has begun to take place. I believe that this definition of missionary physician that was voted by the Division is no longer sustained. In other words, nobody can deny a Christian physician who lives in communion with God and working in his own office or public or private institution, if he lives that life and transmits that message, he is a missionary physician.

AIMS: What's going to happen with this new stream of doctors coming out of the Adventist Medical School? How can their medical missionary vision be accomplished?

TABUENCA: Many of our students are really preparing themselves to be missionary physicians, and I am convinced that they will be more than happy to accept an invitation to work in an Adventist institution under the current conditions of denominational

Drs. Tabuenca (third from left) and Wensell (fourth from left) attend the ribbon-cutting of the UAP School of Medicine Basic Sciences building.

salaries. I am sure, also, that the system cannot absorb all those who are willing to do so.

I believe, however, that there is a very elegant way that will, at the same time, favor the growth of the Adventist medical missionary work in some geographic areas that are not currently attended.

AIMS: Dr. Tabuenca, as former director of the SAP, in your experience, what do you see happening in the next twenty years of the institution?

TABUENCA: I can guarantee you that the medical institution that has patients has a future. And I believe God has the human resources for a medical institution like this with 90 years of existence, to maintain its development towards excellence. God wants us to be the head, not the tail.

Even though the Sanatorio Adventista del Plata slowly has been developing in the technological areas, today it is one of the most technologically advanced institutions in that region of the country. Proof of this is that patients arriving to this institution in the middle of the countryside, in a town with a population of 5,000 or 6,000, come from long distances. It is an institution that practices medicine in the broad sense of the word. There is a department called "Assistential Medicine" where all the known specialties are practiced, including open heart surgery and a modern imaging center.

There is another division, "The Better Living Center." I thank God that, in the South American Division, or at least all of the Adventist institutions of the Austral Union, we have the "Adventist" word included in their names so the Sanitarium is the Sanatorio Adventista del Plata and the Better Living Center is the "Centro Adventista de Viva Sana," the Adventist Center of Healthy Life.

In the Adventist Better Living Center we do not admit patients; we welcome "participants." The program goes from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. and they walk trails in the countryside, receive hydrotherapy, have diets tailored to every individual, exercise in a beautiful pool, and sports are also tailored to the participant as well as group discussions according to the problems the participants come with. For instance, some participants come with stress, alcohol and tobacco use, and other addictions. But some come without major problems just in order to change their lifestyle in harmony with the health reform that people recognize is good for them. And they like it so much that one who came once comes a second and a third time and invites somebody else to come. I trust that God will illuminate the minds of the leaders of this institution to continue on this ascending path of greater excellence in service, not losing sight of the excellence in the spiritual attention of the patient.

AIMS: There is occasionally this ghostly fear of having another John Harvey Kellogg

whose personal power will eventually affect the Adventist medical institution negatively. In response, the church leaders took control and guidance of the medical directors to the point where the doctors were unable to operate or advance new ideas or programs.

TABUENCA: In the Austral Union the medical directors are elected by the Board of Directors of the Union and the hospital based on their professionalism, loyalty to the principles sustained by the church and can be removed at any moment when they become a risk. This, however, has not happened in our institution which has had only six directors in ninety years.

AIMS: You mentioned risk; can you elaborate?

TABUENCA: I mean risk when the individual becomes flexible to sin or is seen to tolerate sin among his co-workers. So the solution is at hand at any time. The Union Board that elects them has a wide base, and I hope that their decisions meet the approval of and are blessed by God.

National, provencial, SDA General Conference and UAP authorities listen to

President Menem address the Centennial Celebration audience.

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