Category: Ethics

Irish obstetrician defies health minister

“I will not be forced and bullied by politicians or by the media into performing or facilitating abortions”

Sean Murphy*

Irish obstetrician defies health minister
Click to see the video

Speaking at the All-Ireland Rally for Life, Dr. Trevor Hayes, an obstetrician at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny, said that he and three consultant colleagues at the hospital advised the HSE (Irish Health Services) that they would not peform abortions.

“A great number of my colleagues are unwilling to perform surgical abortions,” he said, “and they say they will not be forced to carry out this life ending procedure”

[The politicians] want to force doctors like me to do so, and that’s not going to happen.

Would the GPs who are attacking pro-life obstetricians on Twitter perform a late-term surgical abortion? Again, I suspect most of them would not. So why are they trying to force other people to be involved in something so repugnant to those of us who adhere to the first principle of medicine, which is “do no harm”?

Shame on them for failing to respect conscientious rights of their colleagues in medicine.  But we won’t be bullied by them either.

Over 30 percent of hospitals in Romania are refusing legal abortions

Doctors invoke conscience clause to avoid performing abortions.

The Black Sea

Lina Vdovii and Michael Bird

Romanian medical student Bianca was in South Korea in March this year when she discovered she was pregnant.

At the time she was taking part in a short work placement in Daegu in the south-east of the country, and was soon to return to Germany to resume her Erasmus programme.

“The news freaked me out,” she told The Black Sea. “I knew a baby would complicate my career and I was not ready for it.”

The next few weeks and months were crucial. She’d not only her Erasmus responsibilities in Germany to consider, but Bianca was also due to sit a series of final-year medical exams at her university in Romania before beginning a hospital residency.

Bianca took the decision to end her pregnancy quickly, and from her temporary home in Daegu she considered the least complicated way to do this. . . [Full text]

New head of bioethics center says new technology raises moral questions

Crux

Charles Collins

When church leaders in the United States face new bioethical questions – such as those surrounding abortion, euthanasia, or gender identity – they often turn to the Philadelphia-based National Catholic Bioethics Center. . .

. . . It was announced this month that Dr. Joseph Meaney, the director of international outreach and expansion for Human Life International, will be taking over as the president of the NCBC.

Speaking to Crux, he said bioethics is “an almost exponentially growing field.” . . .

. . . He said the greatest challenges in the coming years will be “from gender ideology issues such as sex-change surgeries and drugs and also end of life issues, particularly assisted suicide and euthanasia.” . . .

. . .He told Crux there is “a very broad and concerted attack on conscience rights in many Western countries,” including over abortion and assisted suicide. Meaney said this doesn’t just affect doctors, but also nurses, midwives, and pharmacists.

What follows are excerpts of his conversation with Crux. [Full text]

Pharmacist refused to give morning after pill on a Sunday ‘for personal reasons’

Metro

Martine Berg Olsen

A mum was told she couldn’t have emergency contraception because it went against the beliefs of the only pharmacist working that Sunday.

Siani, 41, visited her local LloydsPharmacy at Sainsbury’s on Lewes Road, Brighton, when a female member of staff refused to give her the morning after pill for ‘personal reasons’.

Knowing that there are not many pharmacies open on a Sunday, Siani ordered the contraception online and paid upfront for collection. . . [Full text]

A question of conscience: In doing the bidding of their political masters, how far are Hong Kong police willing to go?

Hong Kong Free Press

Keiran Colvert

Here’s a question for every officer in the Hong Kong police – if the Hong Kong government asked you to shoot to kill to clear protesters from the streets would you do it? This might sound like a far-fetched scenario in Hong Kong – a place which has, until now, been dramatically different from Mainland China in terms of citizen’s rights and the rule of law. Having witnessed the grim scenes unfolding in Admiralty yesterday, and given that two people are currently in intensive care as a result of the police action, this question, unfortunately, may become all too relevant for people serving in the Hong Kong police. . . [Full text]