Category: News

Gender Surgery? Abortion? Doctors & Nurses Say ‘They’ll Quit’ if Forced to Violate Their Beliefs

CBN News

Paul Strand

WASHINGTON – A trend in recent years is forcing medical professionals to participate in procedures they are opposed to for moral reasons. The most well-known of these procedures is abortion.  Another one on the rise involves gender reassignment.

Conscience protections are supposed to prevent doctors and nurses from being forced to take part in such procedures.   

“Right of conscience is the freedom to practice health care in accordance with your deeply-held religious, moral or ethical convictions,” explained Dr. David Stevens, CEO emeritus of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA). . . [Full text]

New Northern Ireland abortion law ‘may give health staff no choice’

Midwife voices fear for conscientious objectors if NI legislation changes

Belfast Telegraph

Allan Preston

Health workers in Northern Ireland could be left “exposed” by changes to abortion law, a lecturer in midwifery has claimed.

Debbie Duncan spent over 30 years working as a midwife in Scotland and England and now lectures at the school of nursing and midwifery at Queen’s University Belfast.

She was never obliged to take part in abortions during her career as the law allowed her to conscientiously object.

Ms Duncan said she fears “too much change with no regulation” means the same protections may not apply here. . . [Full text]

Quebec court hands down ‘robust rejection’ of assisted dying criteria. Here’s what to know

Global News

Maham Abedi

Medically-assisted dying became a discussion point on the second day of the 2019 federal election trail, as leaders reacted to a ruling by the Quebec Superior Court that part of the country’s law is “unconstitutional.”

On Wednesday, a Quebec judge ruled that both the province’s and country’s laws on assisted dying were too restrictive and therefore discriminated against some who sought the procedure. . . [Full text]

Dutch Court Clears Doctor in Euthanasia of Dementia Patient

New York Times

Palko Karasz

LONDON — A court in the Netherlands on Wednesday acquitted a doctor who had been accused of unlawful euthanasia for administering a lethal injection to a patient with dementia, a case that raised questions about the clarity of the country’s law in such circumstances.

The patient, 74, who has not been publicly identified, had asked in writing for doctors to end her life if she had to be admitted to a nursing home, and if she thought the time was right. But, when she entered the home, incapacitated, she appeared to have changed her mind, giving “mixed signals,” about her intentions, prosecutors said. . . . [Full text]

Quebec judge invalidates parts of provincial, federal laws for medical aid in dying

Globlal News

Canadian Press

A Quebec Superior Court judge has invalidated sections of both the federal and Quebec laws on medically assisted dying, ruling Wednesday they were too restrictive and therefore unconstitutional.

Justice Christine Baudouin found in favour of two Quebecers struck by incurable degenerative diseases who’d argued they were denied a medically assisted death under laws that are discriminatory. . . [Full text]