Protection of Conscience Project News
Service, not Servitude
BBC News
A doctor who refused to use transgender pronouns as people’s chosen sex as it went against his Christian faith has lost his tribunal.
Disability assessor Dr David Mackereth, from Dudley, West Midlands, claimed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) breached his right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
But a panel ruled his biblical view of what it is to be male and female was “incompatible with human dignity.” . . . [Full text]
BioEdge
. . . There is a growing body of literature to support the right of deaf parents to use pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to select for deaf children. Jacqueline Mae Wallis, a philosopher at the University of Bristol (UK), contends in the journal Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy that this is morally permissible. . . [Full text]
BioEdge
A trans man in the United Kingdom has lost his bid to be deemed a father on his child’s birth certificate – even though he conceived it, gestated it, and gave birth to it.
Astonishingly, it appears to be the first time that English common law has defined the word “mother”.
The would-be father, a natal female multimedia journalist at The Guardian named Freddie McConnell, was deeply disappointed by the decision and said that he plans to appeal. He complained:
“It has serious implications for non-traditional family structures. It upholds the view that only the most traditional forms of family are properly recognised or treated equally. It’s just not fair.”
Belfast Telegraph
A midwife has said she would walk away from the profession if she was forced to either perform or assist an abortion after the liberalisation of the law in Northern Ireland next month.
She was speaking after a letter signed by 815 doctors, nurses and midwives was sent to Secretary of State Julian Smith and Richard Pengelly, the permanent secretary for the Department of Health, expressing opposition to any change of legislation here.
Carrickfergus GP Dr Andrew Cupples also warned of a mass exodus of healthcare professionals if they had to assist in a pregnancy termination. . . [Full text]
BBC News
Hundreds of health professionals have written to the NI secretary expressing opposition to the liberalisation of NI’s abortion laws.
The doctors, nurses and midwives say their consciences will not allow them to stay silent on the issue.
They want reassurance as “conscientious objectors” that they will not have to perform or assist abortions.
Unless the NI assembly is restored by 21 October, restrictions on abortion in NI will be drastically reduced. . . . [Full text]