Protection of Conscience Project News
Service, not Servitude
The Irish Times
State-owned hospitals should provide abortions in situations where neighbouring Catholic institutions are unwilling to do so, a new report suggests. . . the report says it is clear there will be situations where abortions have to be carried out in acute hospitals, rather than maternity units. There are seven Catholic voluntary hospitals in Dublin, Cork and Limerick . . . [Full text]
The Globe and Mail
Colombia decriminalized medically assisted death in 2015, the first country in Latin America to take the step, but it went much further last May with a regulation that made the procedure available to children.
It was a particularly striking decision in a socially conservative country where almost 80 per cent of people identify as religious Roman Catholics and where the population of evangelical Christians is growing rapidly; the churches, which vocally oppose euthanasia, are a powerful political force.
Providing assisted death to children is a controversial subject even in the field of palliative care. . . [Full text]
Indiana Senate Bill 201, proposed by Senator Liz Brown, has been amended in committee and is progressing through the Indiana General Assembly. Existing Indiana law protects freedom of conscience for physicians, nurses and institutional employees in relation to surgical abortion. Bill 201 amends the statute to include medical abortion and extends protection to physician assistants and pharmacists.
Star Vancouver
VANCOUVER—Thirty-three medical residency positions the Ontario government created last April with a $23-million commitment were a one-time deal and are not on offer to 2019 medical graduates, according to the province’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
The funding was an attempt by the previous Liberal government to decrease the number of Ontario medical graduates going without work while people need doctors. . .
. . .For the last 10 years, as the number of medical students has gone up and the number of residency spots has stagnated, more and more Canadian medical graduates have not secured residency spots. . . [Full text]
Daily Mail
Doctors will have to ensure Victoria’s complex voluntary assisted dying laws don’t prevent eligible candidates from accessing the scheme.
It’s one of several legal and ethical challenges doctors will face when the country’s first euthanasia laws come into affect in June, experts have said.
“Translating this complex law into appropriate clinical practice will be challenging,” lead author Professor Ben White and colleagues said in an article published in the Australian Medical Journal on Monday. . .[Full text]