Service, not Servitude
Two days after it was passed at an Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Medical Association, the CMA Board of Directors approved the following motion:
BBC News
The Oxford professor posted the message on Twitter in response to a user who wrote she would be faced with “a real ethical dilemma” if she became pregnant and learned that the baby would be born with Down’s syndrome.
“Abort it and try again,” Dawkins tweeted in reply. “It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice.”
His comments have caused anger online and have been dismissed by charities, but he insists his views are “very civilised”, tweeting: “These are fetuses, diagnosed before they have human feelings.” . . . [Full Text]
Marlborough Express
An online database listing health professionals who are reportedly opposed to prescribing contraception or abortions is not sinister, the chief executive of Marlborough Primary Health Organisation says.
The My Decision website launched on Sunday lists 28 doctors, nurses, pharmacies and counsellors who object for moral or religious reasons to contraception or abortions .
Former Wairau Community Clinic GP Joseph Lee is on the list. Dr Lee, a devout Catholic, angered pro-choice campaigners when it was revealed last year he had refused to prescribe the contraceptive pill to a 23-year-old woman.
PHO boss Beth Tester said Dr. Lee no longer worked in Marlborough.
She did not mind the database. “It is not that sinister. Any doctor in Marlborough that doesn’t prescribe oral contraceptives has a notice saying so in their practice. This website database is no different.” [Full text]
Canadian Medical Association Journal
All doctors have the right to follow their conscience when deciding whether to assist dying patients physically or to provide them with the means to end their lives – within the bounds of legislation, delegates to the Canadian Medical Association’s annual meeting have voted.
As Canada considers changing its laws concerning assisted death, Canada’s doctors considered their stance on the second day of the Canadian Medical Association’s (CMA) 147th annual meeting in Ottawa. In the end, they voted 91% in favour of allowing individual physicians to follow their conscience in deciding whether or not to provide assistance. . . [Full Text]
Toronto Sun
OTTAWA – In what appears to be a softening on the issue from Canada’s doctors, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) voted Tuesday to allow doctors to follow their conscience if and when assisted suicide becomes legal in Canada.
Previously, the CMA had opposed the idea of medically assisted euthanasia.
But with recent end-of-life legislation in Quebec, as well as two related bills put forward by Steven Fletcher, a Conservative MP who was paralyzed after a car accident in 1996, Canadians’ views — as well as the country’s laws — could be changing. . . [Full Text]