January-March, 2008
March
Independent MSP Margo MacDonald has asked for the legalization of assisted
suicide. MacDonald suffers from Parkinson's Disease. [Scotsman, 27 March]
A three-judge panel of Wisconsin's Barron County Circuit Court has
acknowledged that pharmacists may refuse to dispense medications for reasons
of conscience, but found that pharmacist Neil Noesen had "abandoned even the
necessary steps necessary to perform in a minimally competent manner under
any standard of care." It also ruled that objecting pharmacists are obliged
to refer patients elsewhere. The decision was made in an appeal of
punishment imposed by a disciplinary tribunal. Noeson had refused to
dispense birth control pills and also refused to transfer her prescription
elsewhere. [AP
story] [CitizenLink]
[See
Referral: A False Compromise]
A judge of the U.S. District Court in northern California has dismissed a
suite brought by the state against the federal
Hyde-Weldon Amendment. The Amendment protects freedom of conscience for
health care workers by denying federal funds to states that discriminate
against a health care providers or institutions that refuse to offer
abortions or refer patients for abortions. The judge ruled that the case
could not proceed because the state had failed to demonstrate that the
federal law had caused any harm to the state.
Senate Bill 3, which passed the Indiana Senate, has been defeated in the
state's House of Representatives. The bill would have enacted statutory
protection for pharmacists who object to dispensing a medication for reasons
of conscience.
Three bills pending in Colorado threaten the independence of health care
institutions, especially those operated by religious denominations that
object to some procedures that are legal, but which they consider immoral.
LifeSite News asserts that the bills were introduced because of plans by a
Catholic health care system to purchase controlling interest in two
hospitals. HB1173 would allow courts to direct charitable institutions,
including hospitals, how to spend their money. HB1203 would prohibit
arrangements between hospitals that would restrict access to abortion and
sterilization. SB182 would require hospitals to provide whatever services
the state deemed "essential." The result could be that Catholic hospitals
would be forced to close if they failed to operate in ways the state thought
appropriate. [See
Catholic
archbishop opposes repressive legislation]
The General Medical Council has issued a guideline,
Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice, in which British
physicians are told that they must disclose to patients if there are any
procedures that are not prohibited by law, but which they will not provide
for reasons of conscience. The patient must also be told that he has the
right to see another doctor [The
Times]. This is not problematic within the context of the exercise of
freedom of conscience. However, the guideline goes on to state that an
objecting physician must ensure that the patient has enough information to
be able to exercise that right, and puts the onus on the physician to make
arrangements for someone else to take over when that it not practical. What
constitutes "enough information" is left unclear, and, elsewhere, this tack
is being taken by those attempting to force physicians to facilitate
procedures that they find objectionable. This kind of strategy may be what
lies behind the claim that the objecting physician must find someone,
presumably with a different view, if the patient cannot do so himself. This
is unacceptable, as is the demand that physicians act against their
conscientious convictions in unspecified circumstances.
In
a letter to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, US
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has challenged the ACOG
ethics committee report (The Limits of Conscience Refusal in Reproductive
Medicine), pointing out that it appears to put the certification of
physicians in jeopardy if they are unwilling to perform or refer for
abortion or other "objectionable actions." Leavitt reminded the ACOG of
protective legislation at the federal level, suggesting that enforcement of
the ACOG committee report would have adverse consequences not only for the
objecting physicians, but for entities that depend upon federal funding.
Parents in two Belgian families have been fined€4,100 and sentenced to
five months in prison because they have refused to allow their children to
be vaccinated against polio. As a result of privacy laws, the reason for
their refusal has not been disclosed. Elsewhere, parents who have refused
vaccinations for their children have been motivated either by concerns about
possible side-effects, or by objections to the use of vaccines obtained from
deliberately aborted infants.
Complaints filed against John Lane of Broadus, Montana, have been
dismissed by the state's regulatory authority. For reasons of conscience,
Broadus had refused to sell the morning after pill. When his position became
public, complaints were filed against him. [News
Release]
Delegates to the annual
conference of the British Medical Association voted 65% to 35% to maintain
the Association's formal opposition to physician assisted suicide, and also
voted against the legalization of euthanasia in Britain. The vote
illustrates the need for robust and comprehensive protection of conscience
measures should such procedures ever be legalized. [
Sky
News]
The Seton Medical Center in Daly City, California, has agreed to provide
breast implantation surgery for a man seeking a sex-change. A memo issued in
2006 stated that the hospital would not provide sex-change procedures
because they are contrary to Catholic teaching. The hospital refused to
provide breast implant surgery to a man in 2006, as a result of which he
sued the hospital. In a confusing about-face, apparently caused by the civil
suit, Seton has stated that the man and his physician are welcome at the
Center. At the same time, the Center purports to prohibit "sex reversal"
surgery.
The Oregon Department of Human Services has established regulations to
enforce a law that requires all hospitals to inform patients about the
morning after pill and about their right to receive it upon request.
Hospitals operated by religious denominations opposed to contraception or
embryocide are generally unwilling to offer the drug to women. Catholic
hospitals make exceptions for rape complainants when it is morally certain
that the drug will not prevent implantation of an existing embryo.
A Jesuit hospital in Bogota, Columbia, has been sued by a woman demanding
that it abort her child, now in the sixth month of gestation. The infant is
reported to be seriously deformed, but the San Ignacio University Hospital
's position is that the abnormalities are not lethal, and that it would be
contrary to Catholic teaching to provide an abortion. The Colombian Supreme
Court has authorized abortion in the the case of fetal deformity.
February
If elected, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party plans to limit
protection of conscience measures that now protect medical professionals who
do not wish to provide or facilitate procedures to which they object for
reasons of conscience. [CW
News]
Catholic Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver, Colorado, is speaking out
against state legislation intended to suppress freedom of conscience in
health care. The bills were put forward was a result of the plans of the
[Catholic] Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System to buy two Denver
hospitals, which would then be bound by Catholic ethical directives that
prohibit abortion and contraception. "The Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth
got into the healthcare business because of the Gospel; because of their
Catholic vocation to serve the sick, poor and suffering. They can't
compromise their Catholic beliefs without undermining their whole mission."
[Catholic
News Agency]
Cormac Cardinal Murphy O'Connor has asked for the resignation of the
board of directors of St. John's and St. Elizabeth's Catholic Hospital in
London to ensure that implementation of a Catholic code of ethics, thus
ensuring that the hospital would cease facilitation of abortion,
contraception and artificial reproduction. The Cardinal has no legal power
to dismiss the board. His decision has been questioned by a group that has
been working to restore the institution's Catholicity.
A bill to legalize euthanasia has passed first reading in the Luxembourg
parliament. Passage of the bill would make Luxembourg the third the third
European nation to legalize the procedure and could adversely affect health
care professionals opposed to it for reasons of conscience.
The American Association of ProLife Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG)
has rejected the claim by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology
that objecting physicians are ethically obliged to refer for abortion. Dr.
Joe DeCook of AAPLOG notes that ACOG has also revised certification
standards for doctors, tying them to compliance with the ACOG demands. "This
is a raw power play to cripple, and ultimately eliminate from practice,
those doctors who hold a conscience conviction on the sanctity of human
life."[LifeNews.com]
The Governor of the State of New York is urging the state legislature to
make abortion a positive "right" by passing the Reproductive Health and
Privacy Protection Act (RHPPA). The government states that the act would
ensure that a woman has a right to an abortion at any point prior to
viability or when necessary to preserve her life or health. The Catholic
bishops in New York are opposing the measure. Among their concerns is the
belief that establishing abortion as a legal "right" will ultimately result
in the suppression of conscientious objection and the refusal to license
hospitals that refuse to facilitiate abortion.
Missouri House Bill 1625 offers protection for pharmacies in the state that
refuse to dispense drugs or devices that are abortifacients, and identifies
not only RU486 (Mifepristone), but the morning after pill (Plan B) as
abortifacient. The bill appears to be a response to HB 1720, which would
suppress freedom of conscience by requiring pharmacies to dispense drugs
like Plan B without delay. The key question about whether or not the morning
after pill can cause the death of a embryo by preventing implantation tends
to be obscured when opposing parties focus on whether or not the drug ought
to be classified as an abortifacient.
A Washington judge who granted an injunction against state rules suppressing
freedom of conscience for pharmacists has refused the state's petition to
confine the application of the injunction to the case of the two pharmacists
who took the state to court on the issue. The judge commented that it
appeared that the issue is being driven by the mutual antagonism of the
parties to the case, not by desire for sound health care policy. [KOMO]
The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Amendment Bill has been passed
by a special session of the South African National Assembly. The new law
allows abortion without parental consent for girls as young as 12, lays the
groundwork for 24 hour abortion facilities, eliminates requirements for
approval of the procedure and authorizes nurses and midwives to perform
abortions. The bill was originally passed in 2004, but was struck down in
2006 by the Constitutional Court as a result of a case brought by Doctors
for Life International. DFL International successfully argued that the
public had not been adequately consulted and that the act did not provide
for accommodation of conscientious objection by medical personnel.
Legalization of abortion in South Africa has caused problems for health care
workers opposed to the procedure for reasons of conscience. [See
South Africa Changes Abortion Law;
No Place for Abortion in African Traditional Life - Some Reflections;
South African nurse denied position]
Senate Bill 3, a protection of conscience measure for pharmacists, has
passed the state Senate and must now be approved by the House of
Representatives to become law. [LifeNews.com]
South Dakota Senate Bill 164, which would have abolished the current
protection of conscience law for pharmacists, has been defeated.
Current state law protects pharmacists who refuse to sell a drug that
may cause the death of an embryo. [Dakota
Voice]
The president of the Italian medical association is reported to have said
that there is no legal basis for conscientious objection by physicians in
Italy, apart from "abortion and a few in-vitro fertilization techniques." [CWNews]
January
Henry Morgantaler, the Canadian physician who defied the law and was
eventually successful in having all restrictions on abortion in Canada
removed, was interviewed by the National Review of Medicine to mark
the 20th anniversary of his Supreme Court victory. When asked, "Should
doctors be allowed to conscientiously object to performing an abortion?" he
said, "Yes. One fundamental reason is that doctors should not be obliged to
do things which they don't approve of themselves, and secondly, a more
practical reason, a doctor who doesn't believe in it is more likely not to
do a good job." [National
Review of Medicine]
Lieutenant Commander Joseph J. Healy has filed suite against the U.S. Coast
Guard. Due to his opposition to abortion and Catholic faith, he asked for
exemption from an order requiring all active-duty personnel to be vaccinated
against Hepatitis A with a vaccine derived from a child electively aborted
at 14 weeks gestation. His request was rejected by a Coast Guard officer who
decided that the immunizations were not contrary to Catholic teaching. [ADF
News Release]