Protection of Conscience Project News
Service, not Servitude
An investigation by the Daily Mail has revealed that some physicians in the United Kingdom will arrange for sex-selective abortions. A physician suspended by the General Medical Council following the disclosure agreed to falsify the reason for the procedure. Another physician and an obstetrician/gynaecologist also face discipline. [Daily Mail]
Parents of a child with Down Syndrome have been awarded $2.9 million (U.S.) damages on the grounds that they would have aborted her had the condition been diagnosed during pregnancy. The award is based on the estimated extra lifetime costs of caring for someone with Down syndrome. [ABC News]
The Majority Leader in the Philippines House of Representatives and the House Speaker are reported to be in agreement that the controversial Reproductive Health Bill (RH Bill) should be voted on before a five week Congressional recess that begins on 23 March.[Philippine Star]
American soldiers were used by the U.S. military as guinea pigs in the testing of a variety of drugs like nerve gas, incapacitating agents like BZ, tear gas, barbiturates, tranquilizers, narcotics and hallucinogens like LSD. Tests were conducted up until the late 1960’s at what is now the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. Veterans involved have begun a lawsuit seeking compensation for harm that is alleged to have been suffered as a result of the tests. [CNN] The story of the tests provides an example of the kind of situation in which conscientious objection by health care workers, had it occurred, might now, in retrospect, seem to have been justified.
Two Catholic midwives who brought suit against National Health Services Greater Glasgow and Clyde have lost the case in the Court of Session. The judge ruled that midwives, while expected to supervise and direct staff providing abortions, were not required to directly participate in the procedure, and were “sufficiently removed” from the procedures that their beliefs had been appropriately accommodated. Nonetheless, the judge did acknowledge that they were causally connected, but ruled that the protection of conscience clause in the Abortion Act (1967) must be interpreted to refer only to direct participation.