Claire La Hougue (Read the text)
Claire La Hougue: Freedom of Conscience in the Medical Area
Claire La Hougue (Read the text)
Category: Abortion
Claire La Hougue (Read the text)
Professor Heiner Bielefeldt: Conscientious Objection
Professor Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
UN Special Rapporteur Favours of a Right to Conscientious Objection
News Release
On the occasion of a conference organized by the ECLJ at UN headquarters in Geneva, Professor Heiner Bielefeldt, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, spoke in favor of the right of medical staff to refuse to participate in performing an abortion or euthanasia. He mentioned the case of a midwife who was harshly sentenced in Sweden for having refused to participate in an abortion and was forced into “professional exile.”
He considers that this right, based on freedom of conscience, should extend to the medical staff directly involved in the matter, as long as their objection is well-founded on a strong and deep conviction. . . [Full text]
Seven in 10 Italian gynaecologists refuse to carry out abortions
Figure has risen from 59% in 2005 and has been accompanied by increase in reported miscarriages
The Guardian
Seven in 10 Italian gynaecologists refuse to carry out abortions on the grounds of conscientious objection, according to official government figures.
The rise – which saw the proportion of those objecting go from 59% in 2005 to 70% in 2013 – has been accompanied by a steady increase in reported miscarriages, trends that some doctors say are linked. They suggest more women are seeking abortions in clinics that are not legally providing them or are inducing abortions themselves.
“Women are getting abortions, but doing it illegally, because we know there are so many who are arriving at our clinic who have a quote-unquote spontaneous abortion [or miscarriage]. They probably took a pill … we understand [these to be an] illegal abortion,” said Silvana Agatone, a gynaecologist in Rome. . .[Full text]
Submission to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia
Re: Standard of Practice: Physician Assisted Death
Abstract
The Project considers the proposed standard of practice satisfactory with respect to the accommodation of physician freedom of conscience and respect for the moral integrity of physicians. Neither direct nor indirect participation in euthanasia and assisted suicide is required.
The Project offers simple and uncontroversial recommendations to avoid conflicts of conscience associated with failed assisted suicide and euthanasia attempts and urgent situations.
The standard does not adequately address the continuing effects of criminal law. The College has no basis to proceed against physicians who, having the opinion that a patient does not fit one of the criteria specified by Carter, refuse to do anything that would entail complicity in homicide or suicide. College policies and expectations are of no force and effect to the extent that they are inconsistent with criminal prohibitions.
While the standard is satisfactory with respect to freedom of conscience, the fundamental freedoms of physicians in Nova Scotia will remain at risk as long as the College Registrar and others persist in the attitude and intentions demonstrated in his presentation to the Special Joint Committee on Physician Assisted Dying.
II. Avoiding foreseeable conflicts
II.1 Failed assisted suicide and euthanasia
II.2 Urgent situations
II.3 Project recommendations
IV.1 The Registrar before the Special Joint Committee on Physician Assisted Dying
IV.2 The Registrar, the Conscience Research Group, and “effective referral”
IV.3 The Registrar’s intentions
IV.4 The Registrar’s complaint
IV.5 An ethic of servitude, not service
Appendix “A” Supreme Court of Canada, Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 5
A1. Carter criteria for euthanasia and physician assisted suicide
A2. Carter and the criminal law
A3. Carter and freedom of conscience and religion
Appendix “B” Conscience Research Group
B1. Attempts to coerce physicians: abortion
B2. Plans to coerce physicians: assisted suicide and euthanasia
B3. Plans to coerce physicians: the CRG Model Policy
B4. CRG convenes meeting with College representatives
2ublic