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Protection of Conscience Project

www.consciencelaws.org

Service, not Servitude
Periodicals & Papers

1990

Bernabe-Garrido MT.  [Terminal care, conscience and rights] Soins Chir 1990 Feb;(108):39-44  [Article in French] PMID: 2377843

 

Engelhardt HT. Taking pluralism seriously, or is the Ethics Manual of the American College of Physicians unsympathetic to physicians with religious objections to abortion?  Linacre Q 1990 Aug;57(3):11-4 PMID: 11651026

 

Kluge EH.  CMA's Code of Ethics: The CMA responds.  CMAJ 1990; 143 (2) 88-89.

Eike-Henner Kluge

  • Dr. Brown raises a very interesting and very important question about the relation between the CMA's Code of Ethics, the Hippocratic Oath and the various policies that the CMA has adopted on matters such as abortion.

The current CMA policy and, incidentally, that of the British Medical Association, the American Medical Association and most other medical associations all over the world - defines an induced abortion as the deliberate termination of a pregnancy before fetal viability. . .

Lancet 1990 Sep 22;336(8717):720 (Editorial) Conscience and complicity.  PMID: 1975897

 

Rieger HJ.  [The objection to drug trials by salaried physicians on grounds of conscience. The judgement of the Labor Court of the Federal Republic of Germany of 24 May 1989]Dtsch Med Wochenschr 1990 Jun 15;115(24):954-6 [Article in German]  PMID: 2357930

H.J. Rieger

Riis P. Why mask a good conscience as a bad conscience? Intern Med 1990 Aug;228(2):77-8 (Editorial) Comment on: J Intern Med. 1990 Aug;228(2):139-45. PMID: 2394973 

Povl Riis

  • The present issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine contains a contribution by Asplund & Britton on the important topic of ' do-not-resuscitate ' orders in medical departments.

Asplund & Britton's work follows a previous contribution on the topic of stopping treatment, published in this journal, concerning the thorough analysis by Kjellstrand of prolonging life or allowing death in patients undergoing long-term dialysis treatment. . .

Rozemond H.  [Animal experiments: advice concerning conscientious objections in employment] Tijdschr Diergeneeskd 1990 Nov 1;115(21):1002-3[Article in Dutch] PMID: 2237877

H. Rozemond

Shiers ET. Coercive population control policies: an illustration of the need for a conscientious objector provision for asylum seekers. VA J Int Law 1990 Summer;30(4):1007-37  PMID: 11656108 

E. Tobin Shiers

  • On May 12, 1989, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA or "the Board") dismissed an appeal by a citizen of the People's Republic of China concerning the denial of his applications for asylum and for "withholding of deportation." The Chinese citizen, a thirty-three year-old man named Chang, based his appeal on China's "one couple, one child" policy, arguing that his applications should have been granted because the policy would require him to be sterilized upon his return to China since he and his wife had two children and refused to agree to limit the size of their family. . .

Schröck RA.  Conscience and courage--a critical examination of professional conduct. Nurse Educ Today 1990 Feb;10(1):3-9 PMID: 2304431

R.A. Schröck

  • Abstract: The roots of professional power and authority lie in the claim to a specific kind of knowledge, the 'knowledge that' and the 'knowledge how'. These kinds of knowledge are included in the notion of 'science'. 'Knowledge why'- the justification for a professional action - demands a moral argument in terms of what is known and can be done (taking 'scientific' knowledge into account) but most importantly asking whether it ought to be done. It is important to ask how a nurse acquires the 'knowledge why' and thereby the means to justify his/her conduct in moral terms. This paper considers the norms of professional conduct, the professional mandate and the determination of what is, to the best of the professional's knowledge and conscience, the right act. The question is raised whether an appeal to the individual conscience can be a reliable guide to a morally justifiable action. An exploration of moral perceptions, moral reasoning and moral argument needs to be part of a professional education which requires a certain kind of courage on part of both teachers and students.

Tyson JE. Moral and ethical issues in reproductive medicine: a crisis of conscience. Curr Opin Obstet Gynecol 1990 Dec;2(6):869-76 (Review)  PMID: 2130991

J.E. Tyson

Warden J. BMJ 1990 Jan 20;300(6718):145 (News) Conscience clause.  PMID: 11642821 

 John Warden

  • The Commons social services committee has begun an inquiry into the operation of the conscience clause in the 1967 Abortion Act. This states that no persons shall be under any duty to participate in treatment under the act to which they have a conscientious objection. The issue arose over advertisements last year for consultant posts that referred to termination duties, in breach of departmental guidelines. Before the committee last week departmental witnesses agreed that it was possible that there could be discrimination against doctors and nurses in the operation of the clause. But since 1986 only four complaints had been received about the issue, with a rise to 16 last year that was prompted by the advertisements. The select committee, by contrast, has been inundated with written submissions, many of them from NHS staff under confidentiality. One wrote: "I hope to declare my identity as soon as I have been appointed a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist." . . .

Warden J. BMJ 1990 Nov 3;301(6759):1013 (Letter) Abortion and conscience.   PMID: 11642801

John Warden

  • One certainty of the fourth and possibly final session of this parliament is that reform of the abortion law will not be a feature. After 20 years of failed attempts to amend the 1967 Abortion Act the issue is settled for the time being. The royal assent to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill sets the course for a marked relaxation of Britain's abortion law. . . By way of consolation in its darkest hour, the antiabortion lobby thinks that it has gained some ground with regard to stiffening the conscience clause in the Abortion Act. In a report last week the House of Commons Social Services Committee accepted the evi? dence that discrimination does take place against doctors and nurses because of their antiabortion views, though it is difficult to prove. . .

Warden J.  Conscience clause divides MPs and doctors. BMJ 1990 Mar 31;300(6728):835 (News)PMID: 11642767

John Warden

  • Eight non-politically motivated doctors lined up as witnesses before the Commons social services committee last week. Four were liberal and four were conservative. Note the small "l" and the small "c," since these are not party labels but denote attitudes towards the Abortion Act and the operation of the conscience clause.

The issue is one that disturbs and divides the profession perhaps more than it realises, and certainly more than the Department of Health realised from the bland evidence it produced, based on deceptively few com? plaints (20 January, p 145). Judging from the balance of evidence the committee has received there is a strong likelihood that it will propose changes in the operation of the conscience clause because it tends to disadvantage doctors who invoke it as well as women who seek a termination. . .