Woman acted as surrogate mother for son’s IVF baby, court hears

Man in his 20s told he may adopt his biological son after court is told how he embarked on ‘process of becoming a father’ with assistance from his own mother

The Guardian

A woman acted as a surrogate mother for a baby whose biological father is her adult son, a family court judge has been told.

The man, who is in his mid-20s and lives alone, had taken advice from specialist lawyers before embarking on the “process of becoming a father”, Mrs Justice Theis heard. He had looked after the little boy – now seven months old – since birth. Theis has ruled that he can adopt.

Detail of the case emerged in a written ruling by Theis following a family court hearing in London. The judge said she had never encountered such a surrogacy arrangement before.

 

MP seeks to safeguard rights of anti-abortion admin staff

The Tablet

Paul Wilkinson

A Scottish Catholic MP will try to clarify the conscience clause in the 1967 Abortion Act in the next Parliament to allow hospital administrative staff to refuse to work on abortion cases.

Tom Clarke, the Labour member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, has been pressing unsuccessfully for the Prime Minister David Cameron to support clarification of the clause since two Catholic midwives in Scotland failed to convince the Supreme Court that they should be excused from delegating, supervising and supporting staff involved in terminations. The court’s ruling in December said that conscientious objection only applies to those who participate in procedures or treatments that lead to an abortion. . . [Full text]

How far should a doctor go? MDs say they ‘need clarity’ on Supreme Court’s assisted suicide ruling

National Post

Sharon Kirkey

Canada’s doctors are seeking clarity from the federal government on what the Supreme Court of Canada intended in its landmark ruling on assisted dying, including the question of how far a doctor is permitted to go in contributing to a patient’s death.

“We’ve got a few key questions that we think need clarity and this is one of them: Is it euthanasia or is it assisted dying?” said the Canadian Medical Association’s director of ethics and professional affairs, Dr. Jeff Blackmer.

The powerful doctors’ lobby said it is not clear whether the high court has opened the door not just to assisted suicide  –  where a doctor writes a prescription for a lethal overdose of drugs the patient takes herself  –  but also to something many physicians find profoundly more uneasy: pushing the syringe themselves. . . [Full text]

 

Doctors with conscience speak out

Times of India

Rema Nagarajan

NEW DELHI: In order to benefit the hospital and meet its commercial needs, one has to do things like keeping patients in the hospital longer than necessary, and doing unnecessary investigations and procedures (including angioplasty) since there was pressure from the management of the hospital.

My conscience began pricking and I left the hospital- Dr Gautam Mistry, Kolkata, cardiologist who left a corporate hospital after seven years. . . [Full text]

 

Protect doctors’ right to choose

QMI AGENCY

It’s all about choice. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that suffering Canadians have the right to choose to end their life through assisted suicide.

But doctors must also have the right to choose  –  to choose whether they are a part of this process or not.

A recent article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showcases several points worth repeating. They report that a majority of palliative care physicians actually don’t envision assisted suicide as part of their work. . . [Full text]