Associate Professor Patrick Gerard L. Moral, MD, a faculty member of the Department of Medical Ethics of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, was named the 2021 Most Outstanding Fellow of the Philippine College of Chest Physicians during its 41st Annual Chest Convention held from March 1-4, 2022.
The award citation paid tribute to Moral as a “distinguished academician, a dedicated clinician, an exemplary researcher, and an active social civic servant.” Moral was also recognized “for inspiring and moving colleagues and trainees to aspire for higher moral standards, excellence in clinical care, medical education, and scientific research.”
“It is not an honor I receive alone. To be lifted by others allows you to keep your head up as long as someone supports you,” Moral said in his acceptance speech. Moral paid tribute to his parents who provided him access to quality education that exposed him to mentors like Jesuit Fr. James O’Brien, SJ, “whose program allowed me to teach English at the public school and helped me realize that I had the power to change things for others.”
The realization of the ability to change things for others was put to good use for Moral as he underwent training and eventually became a mentor himself at the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, which allowed him “to be part of lives of thousands of doctors over the past two decades.” He specially paid tribute to respected mentors in the field of medical ethics, Drs. Angeles Tan-Alora and Edna Monzon, for the guidance they gave him over the years.
Moral, both an ethicist and pulmonologist, said that his decades of experience “have allowed me to see that to be outstanding means to lend your voice to those who stand outside the circle, those who are marginalized. I will continue to use the platform and privilege I have been given to speak their words but never assuming to speak on their behalf.”
