Category: Countries

Questions remain over puberty-blockers, as review clears study

BBC

Deborah Cohen,Hannah Barnes

Over the past year, there have been mounting criticisms of a study into the effects of puberty-blocking drugs when used to treat young people with gender dysphoria – including concerns raised by Newsnight.

The study was carried out at the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) at London’s Tavistock Clinic – England’s only NHS youth gender clinic – and partly led to the clinic lowering the age at which it offers children puberty blockers. The clinic started recruiting young people to the study in 2011.

Puberty blockers are given to young people who are struggling with their gender identity. They work on the brain to stop the rise in sex hormones – oestrogen and testosterone – that accompanies puberty. These are the hormones that lead to changes in the body, such as periods, breasts or voice-breaking. . . [Full text]

Varadkar invokes St John Henry Newman in conscience debate

Taoiseach was responding to Labour leader’s call for end to clerics ‘instructing’ politicians

The Irish Times

Marie O’Halloran

Catholic politicians should look to the comments of newly canonised Saint John Henry Newman when considering issues of conscience, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar made his remarks after Labour leader Brendan Howlin highlighted comments by Catholic primate Archbishop Eamon Martin last month at the Kennedy Summer School.

Archbishop Martin said Catholic politicians in particular had a responsibility to support laws that “uphold the dignity of every person from conception to death”. He also cautioned against politicians leading “parallel lives compartmentalised in to spiritual and secular spheres”.

Mr Howlin suggested that this idea of Catholic politicians “has the potential to be deeply problematic” as Irish society becomes more pluralist and multicultural. . .[Full text]

Christian Medical Association Responds to Its Federal Court Victory Upholding Medical Judgment and Conscience Freedom

News Release

Christian Medical Association

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15, 2019 /Standard Newswire/ — The Christian Medical Association, the nation’s largest faith-based professional medical organization, responded today to their victory in federal court for the conscience rights of medical professionals. The case, Franciscan Alliance v. Azar, sought relief from a 2016 federal regulation that threatened to drive religious doctors out of practice if they would not perform gender-transition procedures that violate their medical judgment and beliefs. Today’s ruling struck down the rule.

CMA CEO Dr. Michael Chupp noted, “Today’s victory in our federal court case in Texas against government coercion means doctors can continue to exercise medical judgment and ethical care based upon sound medical evidence and Hippocratic standards of patient care instead of any ideology. As our national polling has proven, doctors of faith endeavor to care for all patients regardless of whether or not we agree with their choices or values. But we need the freedom to exercise medical judgment and conscience convictions in order to practice medicine ethically and to provide the best and safest care to our patients.”

CMA Vice President for Government Relations and Director of Freedom2Care Jonathan Imbody added, “We are thankful for Becket’s excellent representation of our membership and their cogent presentation to the court of the legal grounds for this decision, which included the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That law provides essential protections against the current drive to replace religious freedom with ideological coercion, and we must resist all attempts to nullify the law and its protections consistent with our First Amendment.”

Becket is also currently fighting for the conscience rights of religious doctors on behalf of Dr. Regina Frost and the Christian Medical Association, in another case, New York v. HHS.

Freedom2Care conscience polling: www.freedom2care.org/polling

CONTACT: Margie Shealy, 888-230-2637, 423-341-4254 cell, margie.shealy@cmda.org

From dementia to medically assisted death: A Canadian woman’s journey, and the dilemma of the doctors who helped

The Globe and Mail

Kelly Grant

To give Alzheimer’s patient Mary Wilson the death she sought, her physicians had to make a tough decision in a short time – and risked going to prison if they got it wrong. Now they’ve been cleared of wrongdoing in a decision that could have wide-reaching implications for tens of thousands of Canadians. . . [Full text]

Women forced to travel as only 10 out of 19 maternity units provide full abortion service

Irish Independent

Eilish O’Regan

Just half of the country’s 19 maternity units are providing a full abortion service, it emerged yesterday.

It means that some women are more likely to have to travel for the service, despite the new abortion law coming into effect in January.

The HSE said that “work is ongoing with hospital groups to roll out the service in additional maternity hospitals”.

However, a spokeswoman said it has not received any formal complaints about women travelling a long distance or failure to get a referral. . . [Full text]