Category: Ethics

American College of Physicians acknowledges freedom of conscience

The American College of Physicians has acknowledged that physicians who object to “abortion, sterilization, contraception or other reproductive services . . . is not obligated to recommend, perform or prescribe them.”  The statement is in the most recent edition of the College’s Ethics Manual.  However, an objecting physician is obliged to advise a patient of “care options and alternatives, so that the patient’s rights are not constrained.”  Only if the physician is unwilling to provide this information is a transfer of care required.  [Secondhand Smoke]

 

United Kingdom report recommends compulsory referral for assisted suicide

A report produced by a privately established and funded Commission on Assisted Dying has recommended that assisted suicide be legalized in the United Kingdom for any competent person over 18 years old who is terminally ill and expected to live less than 12 months.  It also recommends that physicians who refuse to assist with suicide for reasons of conscience be compelled to refer patients to colleagues who will do so [P. 311, Report]. The eleven members of the Commission included Lord Falconer, a lawyer and former solicitor general, who acted as Chair.  The validity of the Commission has been challenged from the outset, and a number of groups, including the British Medical Association, refused to take part, though about 1,300 sources gave evidence. [BBC]

Project Submission to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Re: Women’s access to lawful medical care: the problem of unregulated use of conscientious objection.

(6 October, 2010)

  • Background | On 7 October, 2010, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) considered a report recommending that freedom of conscience be denied to denominational health care facilities and, in  large part, to medical practitioners. Project Submission