Month: February 2019

Abortion and the medical profession

The Irish Times (Letter)
Reproduced with permission

Dr. Noreen O’Carroll

Sir, –

Dr Mark Murphy states that doctors who are opposed to abortion are in no way affected by the new service and their conscientious right to objection is respected.

In fact, doctors who have a conscientious objection are legally compelled to make arrangements for the transfer of care of the pregnant woman concerned to someone who will terminate the pregnancy. For doctors who cherish human life from its origins, that is tantamount to making them accomplices in taking the life of a developing baby.

This is an abuse of conscience and contrary to the practice of medicine in the spirit of the Hippocratic oath which prohibits the direct intentional taking of human life.

Dr Murphy, who you omitted to mention is on the staff of the department of general practice at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, is one of a minority of GPs in Ireland who have signed up to provide abortion services; the vast majority of GPs have not done so – 274 was the figure recently reported by the HSE.

I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of a pro-life group; although as an ordinary citizen, I have consistently advocated for the life of the developing baby to be legally protected and have voted accordingly.

– Yours, etc, Dr Noreen O’Carroll, (Lecturer in Medical Ethics, RCSI), Blackrock, Co Dublin.

Indiana bill extends conscience protection to medical abrtions

Sean Murphy*

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.

New doctors needing a medical residency in Canada face ‘match day’ with few available spots

Star Vancouver

Alex McKeen

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]

Euthanasia rollout challenges Vic doctors

Daily Mail

Australian Associated Press

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]

Leading Irish hospital makes willingness to do abortions a condition of employment

BioEdge

Michael Cook

Only doctors who are willing to perform abortions will be considered for two consultant posts at Dublin’s National Maternity Hospital. The hospital is advertising for a consultant anaesthetist and a consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology.

According to a statement from the NMH the positions include the “provision of termination-of-pregnancy services, and are for individuals willing to contribute to the provision of these services”.

A source at the hospital told the Irish Times that conscientious objection guidelines for existing staff would remain as they were before.

Baroness Nuala O’Loan, of Northern Ireland, recently warned that the Republic would be entering “uncharted territory” if it made willingness to perform abortions a condition of employment. What if doctors changed their mind, feeling in conscience that they could no longer participate in abortions, she asked.

After a referendum last year which allowed abortion to be legalised, Ireland is expanding its services quickly to provide abortions. The health department’s budget provides €7 million in funding for abortion services this year and €12 million in 2020.

Leading Irish hospital makes willingness to do abortions a condition of employment

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