Korean doctors categorize 12 cases to refuse treatment

Korean Biomedical Review

Song Soo-youn

The local medical community’s voice is growing for doctors’ rights to refuse to treat a patient, but patients are against the idea. However, the U.S. and Europe have already recognized such rights.

Based on examples in other countries, Korean physicians should also be allowed to refuse treatment in particular situations such as a forced surgery to terminate a fetus, a report said.

The Korean Medical Association (KMA)’s Medical Policy Research Institute released the report, “Status and Challenges of Treatment Refusal,” on Thursday. The institute analyzed examples in other countries and offered 12 situations where doctors can refuse to deliver treatment services. . . [Full text]

Protection of conscience an issue in backbench revolt on Australian abortion bill

Demand for compulsory referral by objecting physicians among provisions deemed unacceptable

Sean Murphy*

Two Liberal Members of Parliament in New South Wales, Australia, have threatened to break with their party cross the floor to sit in opposition if the government does not make changes to a bill decriminalizing abortion (the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019). Should they do so, the government will lose its parliamentary majority.

Among the amendments Tanya Davies and Kevin Conolly are seeking is removal of a requirement that objecting physicians provide patients with contact information for non-objecting colleagues.

If the bill passes unamended, a physician will be free to fully exercise freedom of conscience at 22 weeks plus one day (when there is no requirement to provide contact information), but not at 22 weeks minus one day (when the bill requires contact information to be supplied.)  The inexact calculation of gestational age contributes further to the arbitrariness of this restriction of fundamental human freedom. (See Abortion bill in New South Wales a global first)

End of Life clinic sees 15% rise in euthanasia requests

Times NL

Janene Pieters

The number of euthanasia requests submitted to the End of Life Clinic in The Hague this year increased by 15 percent compared to last year. According to the clinic, officially called the Euthanasia Expertise Center from Wednesday, the increase is due to the judiciary’s harsher attitude towards euthanasia, the Volkskrant reports.

The clinic was established in 2012 as a safety net for patients whose own doctor will not listen to their request for euthanasia. A few years ago the number of euthanasia requests to the clinic seemed to stabilize at around 210 a month. . . . [Full text]

Centura Health doctor’s firing sets off lawsuit, fight over Colorado’s assisted suicide law

7 The Denver Channel

The Associated Press

DENVER (AP) — After watching his mother die slowly when he stopped her medication, Neil Mahoney knew he wanted the option of ending his own life peacefully when a doctor told him in July that he had months to live after being diagnosed with cancer.

A physician was willing to help him do that under Colorado’s medically assisted suicide law, but she was fired by Centura Health, a Christian-affiliated health system, for violating its guidelines on the issue. . . [Full text]

Coalition’s religious discrimination bill goes far, but not far enough

The Sydney Morning Herald

Reproduced with permission

Xavier Symons*

It is no surprise that the Religious Discrimination Bill is being criticised as too strong by aggressive secularists and too weak by people of faith. Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter describes the bill as a “shield against discrimination”, not a sword.

The fundamental point is that this is not a religious freedom bill. It is a religious discrimination bill with a narrow focus on a very specific set of issues.

It characterises religious belief as a “protected attribute” of individuals akin to age, sex or sexual orientation. This is unlikely to satisfy many religious stakeholders who believe that religion is a positive good, not just for individuals (like sexual orientation), but also for communities. . . [Full text]