January-March, 2009
Randy Hillier, a Conservative member of the Ontario legislature, has
announced that he will run for the leadership of the provincial Conservative
Party, seeking the protection of freedom of conscience and the abolition of
the Ontario Human Rights Commission. He promises to introduce a Freedom of
Association and Conscience Act and replace the OHRC and similar tribunals
with real judges in real courts. [
Hillier
speech]
Chromosomal microarray analysis is a new, non-invasive prenatal genetic test
that is capable of detecting genetic abnormalities that cannot be found by
other existing tests. It is safer, faster and more accurate than alternative
methods. The principal obstacle to its widespread use is the cost
($1,600.00), though a strong proponent of the test argues that it is
"cost-effective if couplesare going to terminate." Dr. Arthur Beaudet of
Baylor College
of Medicine in Houston, Texas notes that it is
very expensive to care for severely disabled children. Concerns have been
raised that the test will lead to more abortions because doctors may feel
compelled to provide the test in order to avoid "wrongful birth" lawsuits,
while parents will resort to abortion with increasing frequency to avoid the
birth of disabled children. If this occurs, there will be increased pressure
upon conscientious objectors to abortion in health care. (
CMAJ)
Protestors gathered in front of Catholic hospitals in Colorado and Florida
to protest plans by the Obama administration to revoke the HHS protection of
conscience regulation. About 40 people appeared outside St. Mary's hospital
in Grand Junction, Colorado, while a news report put the number outside St.
Luke's Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, at about 50. [
Daily
Sentinel] [
News4Jax.com]
The Heritage Foundation, an American advocacy group, has posted
A Doctor's Right to encourage
American citizens to comment in defence of the HHS
regulation that the Obama administration plans to revoke.
A representative of ASPIRE (Advocates for Safe Parenthood: Improving
Reproductive Equity), an activist group from Trinidad, urged a Jamaican
parliamentary committee to legalize abortion, and also asserted that
physicians who refuse to refer for abortion are failing in their duty to
their patients and should be prosecuted. The claim was challenged by a
committee member. [Radio
Jamaica]
Catholic Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, DC, speaking to members
and guests of the John Carroll Society, said, "We have just celebrated
doctors who all their lives have had the freedom to exercise medical skills
according to their minds, hearts and souls and what they know to be right.
All of that is in grave danger." The Archbishop was referring to plans by
the Obama administration to revoke a federal protection of conscience
regulation. [
Catholic
News Service]
The chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of
the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, rejects the attempt by the
Obama administration to suppress freedom of conscience in health care.
"Neither the United States government or the Congress or the administration
gives us rights," said Bishop William F. Murphy. "[N]o state has the right
to compromise or interfere with human rights." [
The
Pilot (Boston)]
Appealing to autonomy and equality, Jocelyn Downie, Canada Research Chair in
health law and policy and professor of law and medicine at Dalhousie
University, is advocating legalization of assisted suicide. She argues that
the sole criteria for permitting assisted suicide should be competence. [
Ottawa
Citizen]
Downie has argued that physicians are legally and ethically
obligated to refer patients for abortion, a position that has been stoutly
resisted by dissenting medical professionals. [See
Re: "Abortion: Ensuring Access"]There is no principled reason to suppose
that Downie would not also advocate compulsory referral for or facilitation
of assisted suicide. Legalization of the procedure on these terms would
probably generate conflicts of conscience among those expected to provide it
or to facilitate it through referral.
The Idaho House of Representatives has passed
HB
216, a bill that includes a protection of conscience clause for
pharmacists. The bill will now go to the state Senate for consideration. [
Idaho
Business Review]
A survey of 4,000 physicians in the United Kingdom indicates that only about
one third of them are in favour of assisted suicide or euthanasia. This
contrasts sharply with public opinion polls, which suggest that assisted
suicide is acceptable to 82% of the population and 62% favour euthanasia. It
is reasonable to believe that legalization of either procedure with the
expectation of involvement by physicians would create widespread conflicts
of conscience within the medical profession. [
The
Guardian]
Citing policies of the British General Medical Council, the Department of
Health, Social Services and Public Safety has issued a guidelines that
demand that objecting physicians refer women seeking abortion to doctors who
will provide the procedure. [
Termination
of Pregnancy: The Law and Clinical Practice in Northern Ireland] The
demand is likely to be unacceptable to some objecting physicians. It is also
argued that, though procedures to save the life of the mother are lawful
even if they result in the death of an infant
in utero, direct
abortion remains a criminal offence in Northern Ireland. This is said to
preclude referral for abortion, since it would amount to counselling the
commission of a criminal offence.
The Catholic bishop of Springfield, Illinois, has warned that a new bill (
HB2354)
in Wisconsin's legislature will suppress freedom of conscience for all
health care workers. "This proposed law," said the Most Reverend George J.
Lucas, "will drive Catholic doctors and nurses from health care" and make it
impossible for Catholic hospitals to operate. [
Catholic
Times]
Luxembourg has legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia. The law was passed
after a constitutional amendment stripped the state's Grand Duke of his
power to veto laws by refusing to sign them. Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
stated last year that he would refuse to sign the bill if it passed the
Chamber of Deputies. Article of the
new
law states that no one is obliged to participate in euthanasia or
assisted suicide. It requires a physician who refuses a request to give the
patient the reasons for his refusal in writing within 24 hours, and to
transfer the patient's medical file upon request.
Francis Cardinal George, President of the United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops, has warned that revocation of the federal HHS protection
of conscience
regulation "would be the first step in moving our country from democracy
to despotism." The USSCB has added
Conscience Protection
Home to it website to provide links to information and resources about
the issue. [
News
Release;
Text of Statement]
An American website dedicated to freedom of conscience in health care is on
line at
http://www.freedom2care.org.
The site provides a portal to visitors to enable them to submit comments to
the Department of Health and Human Services on the Obama administration's
plan to revoke a freedom of conscience
regulation. Comments to the Department should be sent only by American
visitors. Comments must be received by 9 April, 2009.
The site is also
collecting stories of the suppression of freedom of conscience among health
care workers through discrimination or coercion. Health care workers in need
of legal assistance may be connected to legal counsel through the site.
A bill to legalize assisted suicide in New Hampshire [
HB0304]
includes a provision to the effect that no health care worker is obliged to
participate in the procedure. All that is required of an objector is the
transfer of the patient's medical file to another practitioner upon request.
Caritas Christi, a Catholic hospital network in Massachusetts, is seeking a
state contract to provide health insurance as part of a program that
includes insurance coverage for abortion. Boston Globe columnist Michael
Paulson reports that Caritas Christi refused to answer questions about what
procedures are prohibited by Catholic teaching and how it handles requests
for such services. Caritas Christi's failure to respond is being criticized
both by Paulson and by some Catholic organizations [
Pewsitter.com].
The situation illustrates the problems that can arise for denominational
institutions that are dependent on public funds or contracts.
Oxford University stem cell expert Professor Sir Richard Gardner is
advocating the harvesting of organs from aborted foetuses for transplant
purposes. Adverse reactions to the proposal from some quarters demonstrates
that the practice would likely cause conflicts of conscience among health
care workers. [[
Daily
Mail]
A former Australian Federal Court judge and a former advisor to the
Australian Attorney General have advised Catholic Health Australia that a
new
law in the state of Victoria contravenes international human rights
agreements. The 15 Catholic hospitals in the state will refuse to obey the
requirement to refer women for abortions and will challenge the law if taken
to court. The federal Attorney General is being asked by various people,
including members of his own party, to intervene to overturn the state law.
[The
Age]
The Federal Register has published a
notice that the Department of Health and Human Services plans to revoke
a
regulation that supports freedom of conscience in health care. The
Department is required to accept public comment for a period ending 9 April,
2009. It is requesting the following responses:
1. Information, including specific examples where feasible,
addressing the scope and nature of the problems giving rise to the need
for federal rulemaking and how the current rule would resolve those
problems;
2. Information, including specific examples where feasible,
supporting or refuting allegations that the December 19, 2008 final rule
reduces access to information and health care services, particularly by
low-income women;
3. Comment on whether the December 19, 2008 final rule provides
sufficient
clarity to minimize the potential for harm resulting from any ambiguity
and
confusion that may exist because of the rule; and
4. Comment on whether the objectives of the December 19, 2008 final
rule
might also be accomplished through non-regulatory means, such as
outreach
and education.
Comments can be submitted through
Freedom2Care.org or by mail (original and two copies) to
Office of Public Health and Science,
Department of Health and Human
Services, Attention: Rescission Proposal
Comments, Hubert H. Humphrey
Building, 200 Independence Avenue,
SW., Room 716G, Washington, DC
20201.
The Washington
Death with Dignity Act, approved by Washington State
voters last fall, comes into effect this month. The law includes
protection
of conscience provisions for health care workers and institutions, but
compels objecting hospitals to permit health care workers on their premises
to refer for assisted suicide. The New York Times speculates that dozens of
hospitals, including public hospitals, will refuse to be involved with
assisted suicide. [
New
York Times]
Responding to the Obama administration's plans to revoke a protection of
conscience regulation, U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, and obstetrician and
gynaecologist, said that "a lot of us will go to jail" rather than perform
abortions. "Let's see them prosecute the first one of us for not doing
that." [Catholic
News Agency]
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta has been reminded in an
editorial in the Calgary Herald that "doctors have constitutional rights
too." The editorial followed reports that some physicians in the province
were concerned that new policies being developed by the College might impose
a duty to refer for abortion, which would be problematic for many objecting
physicians. The paper advised the College to ensure that the wording of its
policy respects the constitutional rights of physicians. [Calgarly
Herald]
Edmonton physician Dr. Joan Johnston has written to the Alberta College of
Surgeons to protest the wording of draft standards of practice. She is
concerned the that proposed standards are intended to force physicians to
refer for abortion. A physician for more than 30 years, she said that she
would quit medicine before referring a patient for abortion. [
CBC
News] The Protection of Conscience Project made a
submission
to the College in October, 2008, dealing with the issue.
Arizona House Bill No. 2564 has been introduced by Rep. Nancy Barto. The
bill includes cosmetic amendments to
the existing protection of conscience law and a provision that would
protect health care workers who refuse to dispense abortifacient drugs or
the morning-after pill. [
The
Arizona Republic]
Eluara Englaro of Italy died four days after physicians began to withdraw
food and fluids to initiate gradual dehydration and starvation. The cause of
death is not known.
Englaro had been in what her father termed a "vegetative state" since a
car accident 18 years ago. She was transferred to a hospital willing to
withdraw food and fluids in order to cause her death in the first week of
February. The procedure was authorized by a court ruling and is legally
approved in a number of other countries, but is considered euthanasia by
many health care workers. In November last year, nuns at the hospice where
she was living refused to comply with the ruling. Despite the court ruling,
the Italian Minister of Health stated that withdrawal of food and fluids was
illegal, and 700 Italian doctors are reported to have signed an open letter
insisting that such patients must be provided with nourishment and water.
The President of Italy refused to sign an emergency law passed by the
government to prevent Englaro from being starved and dehydrated. [Lifesite
News, 3 February;10
February] The case illustrates the potential for conflicts of conscience
among health care workers in such circumstances.
The transfer of care from objecting health care workers is the practice
in Belgium, where euthanasia is legal, and in the states of Washington and
Oregon in the United States, where suicide has been legalized. The practice
appears to be a workable compromise, on the condition that the transfer is
initiated by the patient or a proxy, and objecting health care workers are
required to do no more than what is routinely done when care is transferred
in other cases.
Scientists at China's Shandong Stem Cell Engineering Research Center have
cloned five human embryos. Four were cloned from cells from healthy donors
and the fifth from cells from a patient with Parkinson's Disease. It appears
that the researchers intend to explore the use of human embryos as
continuing sources of healthy tissue to replace diseased tissue in a donor
subject: that a patient would be cloned and his cloned embryos maintained as
"factories" for replacement tissue. [
Earth
Times] The process is morally controversial, as would be the use of
tissue derived from it. To the extent that either would require the
participation of those not directly involved in cloning, maintenance and
manipulation of cloned embryos (who, presumably, have no objections), the
procedures may generate conflicts of conscience among those opposed to them
on moral or ethical grounds.
Recalling Barak Obama's campaign promise to sign the
Freedom of Choice
Act, Catholic Archbishop Henry J. Mansel of Connecticut has warned that
the Act would "deny conscience rights of physicians, nurses, and hospitals
that oppose abortion on religious, moral, and ethical grounds." In this
regard he added:
It is particularly disturbing in these days to see the increasing
lack of respect for individual conscience. So called "liberal" public
office holders, editorial writers, and other journalists are saying
boldly that physicians, nurses, and hospitals must be required to
provide abortions even if the practice violates their convictions in
conscience. Since when is it "liberal" to force a doctor to take the
life of an innocent human being? Since when is it "liberal" to take the
life of an innocent human being?
Noting that, in his inaugural address, President Obama asserted that
Americans have entered a "new era of responsibility" and that they must
acknowledge "duties to ourselves, our nations and the world," Archbishop
Mansel commented, "Fundamental in our responsibilities is the duty to
respect liberty and the rights of conscience." [Catholic
Transcript]
Five organizations have petitioned to intervene in defence of a US Dept. of
Health and Human Services
regulation that is being challenged in three civil suits. Attorneys with
Advocates International filed the request on behalf of Concerned Woman for
America (CWA), Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International, Care Net,
Heartbeat International and the New Jersey Physicians Resource Council. "Our
clients are opposing these lawsuits," said, Samuel B. Casey, "because they
wrongfully seek to compel health care workers to perform abortions against
their ethical and professional judgment or face dire consequences." Casey is
General Counsel of Advocates International's Law of Life Project. [
News
Release]
A lesbian couple has complained to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and
the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba because a physician in
Winnipeg suggested that they should see another physician. It is not clear
from news reports that freedom of conscience is an issue in the case. The
physician told a reporter that she did not decline to treat them, but told
them it would be better for them to see another physician who had experience
with the health concerns of lesbians. The complainants claim that the
physician has religious objections to homosexual relationships. [
Winnipeg
Free Press] Even if the complainants are correct on this point, it does
not follow that the physician's advice to them was motivated by religious
convictions rather than concerns about professional limitations.
Virginia House Bill 2373 was proposed on Jan. 14 by delegate David Englin
from Virginia's 45
th district. It states: "Any pharmacist who
refuses to fill a prescription for contraception shall ensure that the
patient seeking such contraception is treated in a nonjudgmental manner and
is not subjected to indignity, humiliation, or breaches in confidentiality.
The pharmacist shall not confiscate a prescription for contraception that he
refuses to fill." The bill also requires the posting of a notice that the
pharmacy does not provide birth control.
Bill 2373 was tabled, and will
not proceed further in this session of the legislature. The bill appears to
have been aimed at DMC Pharmacy, of Chantilly, Virginia, which opened last
year. The pharmacy adheres to Catholic teaching and does not dispense birth
control. However, there was no evidence that any patient attending the
pharmacy had suffered any disrespectful or unethical treatment.
DMC Pharmacy management believes that the bill was an anti-Catholic
measure and an attempt "to suppress the ability of Catholics and the
Catholic Church to practice their moral beliefs." [CNA]
It is reported that President Obama has directed all federal government
departments to freeze any "midnight rules" enacted in the last months of the
previous administration. The directive will apparently stop the
implementation of the protection of conscience
regulation intended to ensure freedom of conscience among health care
workers. [
Michigan
Messenger]
Representative Jerrold Nadler and Senator Barbara Boxer both plan to
re-introduce the
Freedom of Choice Act, which died with the previous
Congress. Neither has indicated when this will occur. The U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops is distributing millions of
postcards
opposing FOCA in English and Spanish. Catholic authorities are asking
parishioners to sign the cards, which will be sent to members of Congress. [
CBS
News]
Bishop Robert N. Lynch, a member of the Catholic Health
Association's board of trustees, has affirmed that CHAUSA "is strongly
committed to opposing FOCA and (the board) is unanimous that we would do all
we could to oppose it," but denies that there are plans to shut down
Catholic hospitals if it passes, adding, "There's no sense of ominous danger
threatening health care institutions." Similarly, Sister Carol Keehan,
CHAUSA president and CEO, states that the previously introduced version of
FOCA contained nothing "that would force Catholic hospitals or Catholic
personnel to do abortions or to participate in them."
In the event that a new version of FOCA did require all hospitals to
provide abortions, Keehan stated that Catholic hospitals would neither close
nor compromise their principles. She suggested that their response would be
the kind of civil disobedience and legal and political activism that
characterized the American civil right movement in the 1950's and 1960's.
Obama's promise to sign the Act has been a source of considerable
concern, which has been increased by an anonymous "internet novena" e-mail
circulated in January and some internet sites opposed to FOCA that have made
false or exaggerated claims. [Catholic
News Service]
Life Issues Institute has identified controversy over the
Freedom of
Choice Act (FOCA) as "the most important battle" coming up in
Washington [
Link to Life
Issues FOCA page]. The bill was introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer in
2007, but would have to be reintroduced during the present congressional
sitting as a first step towards becoming law. Boxer intends to do so. Since
it purports to entrench a right to abortion in statute, it is possible that
courts would interpret it to nullify protection of conscience laws.
Extravagant claims made in an anonymous e-mail circulated by some opponents
of the bill have led to some confusion. [
CBS
News] [
Catholic
News Service]
The current issue of the
Hasting
Center Report includes a number of essays concerning controversial
medical treatments of children, including blepharoplasty ("Asian eye
surgery") for an adopted child, suppression of puberty, and sex-change
surgery. [
Medical
News Today] The essays illustrate the possibility of conflicts of
conscience among health care workers asked to provide or facilitate the
procedures.
A
letter to
President Obama from Francis Cardinal George on behalf of the US Conference
of Catholic Bishops includes a statement of support for the Dept. of Health
and Human Services
regulation that the Obama administration plans to revoke. "An
Administration committed to faithfully implementing and enforcing the laws
of the United States will want to retain this common-sense regulation, which
explicitly protects the right of health professionals who favor
or
oppose abortion to serve the basic health needs of their communities." The
Cardinal added, " Suggestions that government involvement in health care
will be aimed at denying conscience, or excluding Catholic and other health
care providers from participation in serving the public good, could threaten
much-needed health care reform at the outset."
Organizations petition to intervene in support of HHS regulation
Attorneys with the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund
filed motions to intervene Wednesday in three lawsuits that seek to
invalidate a US Department of Health and Human Services
regulation protecting medical professionals from discrimination because
they refuse to participate in abortions. The ADF and CLS are acting for the
Christian Medical Association, Catholic Medical Association, and American
Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. [News
release]
J. Michael Patton, the executive director of the Illinois Pharmacists
Association, states that the Association has developed policies to
accommodate both patients and pharmacists in cases in which pharmacists
object to dispensing a drug for reasons of conscience. Similarly, Walgreens,
a major pharmacy chain, has developed a company plan to accommodate
objectors. Walgreens spokesman Robert Elfinger states that the policy is
"well thought out" and "really works." [
MedIll
Reports]
Three lawsuits have been filed in US District Court in Connecticut against
the US Department of Health and Human Services
regulation. One suit was filed by the Attorney General of the state
representing the states of Connecticut, California, Illinois, Massachusetts,
New Jersey, Oregon and Rhode Island. In addition, the American Civil
Liberties Association launched an action on behalf of the National Family
Planning & Reproductive Health Association, while the third was commenced by
Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The incoming Obama administration
is known to be opposed to the regulation, and other efforts are underway to
stop it. [
Washington
Post] [
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette] [
The
Hartford Courant] [
The
Hill] Reports have not discussed the possibility that the new executive
may simply decline to contest the suits.
California Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi has put forward Assembly Bill 120 to
counter an
HHS regulation that is intended to protect freedom of conscience for
health care workers. [
California
Chronicle]
Congressman Chris Murphy of Connecticut has announced the introduction of
the
Protecting Patient and Health Care Act of 2009. The bill is
intended to counter a protection of conscience
regulation that takes effect just before the inauguration of the new
president. [
News
Release] At the moment, it is identified in Congress as
HR 570:
To make certain regulations have no force or effect. The text
of the bill is not yet available. It has been referred to the House
Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Legalization of euthanasia in the Indian state of Kerala is being
recommended by a law reform commission headed by a retired supreme court
judge, who is a euthanasia advocate. The recommendation has already sparked
protest from the local Catholic Church.
Apparently in response to a court ruling that approved assisted suicide in
Montana, state representative Dick Barrett is preparing a
draft bill to regulate the procedure. The bill includes a protection of
conscience provision like that found in Oregon and Washington State laws.
Judge Dorothy McCarter of Helena, Montana, USA, has refused to stay a ruling
she issued in December that asserts that assisted suicide is a
"constitutional right." The state Attorney General had requested a stay
pending an appeal to the state supreme court. [
Billings
Gazette] [
American
Medical News] The establishment of assisted suicide as a "right" may
leave objecting health care workers open to civil suits if they decline to
participate in or facilitate the procedure.
Complaining that the pending
HHS regulation encourages health care workers "to exercise their
idiosyncratic convictions at the expense of patient care," Barbara Coombs
Lee is urging Americans to contact members of Congress to have the
regulation revoked. Lee is
ex officio president of
Compassion & Choices
(formerly The Hemlock Society), a group that has long advocated for
physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. [
Huffington
Post]
In addition to arguing that physicians and nurses should encourage
terminally ill patients to consider suicide, Baroness Mary Warnock has
stated that "it is a genuinely wicked thing" for them to disregard explicit
requests for assisted suicide. The remarks were made during a debate at All
Soul's Unitarian Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. [
Belfast
Newsletter]
Ethical guidelines at St. Joseph's Hospital, a Catholic hospital in
London, Ontario, permit late term abortions (termed "early inductions")
after viability (22-24 weeks gestation) when "lethal anomalies" are
present in the fetus. The goal appears to be to bring about premature
delivery so that the child will die at or soon after birth. Dilatation and
evacuation is not "normally" to be used. It appears that these procedures
have been performed at the hospital for twenty years. Rev. Msgr. Ignacio
Barreiro, the Rome Director of Human Life International and a Doctor of
Dogmatic Theology, has criticized the guidelines as contrary to Catholic
teaching [
Lifesite
News] Similar procedures performed at a state hospital in Calgary,
Alberta resulted in significant controversy when nurses were ordered to
participate, despite conscientious objections [
Nurses
At Foothills Hospital Rebel]. There is no indication that conflicts of
conscience have arisen at St. Joseph's. However, the different ethical views
held by the hospital and by Msgr. Barreiro illustrate the potential for such
conflicts.
Epidemiologist Paul Gilusano and Dr. Piero Pirovano of the group
Solidarity, Freedom, Justice and Peace have petitioned the Appeals Court
of Milan to re-open the case of Eluana Englaro. The court had decreed that
assisted nutrition and hydration could be withheld from the disabled woman,
who has been what some call a "state of diminished consciousness" and others
call a "persistent vegetative state" since a 1992 car accident. Gilusano has
also publicly stated that they are ready to sue anyone - physician,
relative, or guardian - who causes her death by withdrawing assisted
nutrition and hydration. [
Lifesite
News]
Children as young as 12 should be given puberty-blocking drugs if they
believe that they are "transsexual." It is argued that the process would
facilitate sex-change operations when they are older, and give them time to
think about whether or not they want to develop as a man or woman. The
recommendations appear in guidelines issued by the International Endocrine
Society in December, 2008. They originate in the experience of a single
clinic in the Netherlands. [
New
Scientist] The proposed treatment is controversial, as is sex-change
surgery. In the absence of protection of conscience legislation, both
practices can create problems for those who, for reasons of conscience, are
opposed to participation in them.
Democratic House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi is among those who
have stated that they will overturn the
Department of Health and Human Services protection of conscience regulation
that is to take effect just before the inauguration of President-elect
Barack Obama. The regulation has been approved by the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) to prevent erosion of freedom of conscience
for health care workers. Pelosi said only that she would work with new
President Obama to revoke the regulation. Other Democrats - Senators Hilary
Clinton and Patty Murray - have introduced legislation to suppress the
measure. Congress can also use the
Congressional Review Act to
accomplish this goal. Attorneys general in some states, including
Connecticut and Pennsylvania, oppose the federal regulation. [
New
Mexico Independent] [
Governor
of Pennsylvania News Release] [
Wolters
Kluwer Law and Business commentary]
An article in The Lancet notes that compliance with the Helsinki Declaration
ceased to be a requirement by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
foreign clinical studies supporting applications for drug licensing. The
Helsinki Declaration is a statement produced by the World Medical
Association in 1964 to set ethical standards for research involving human
beings. The USFDA will now accept overseas research based on the
International Conference on Harmonization's Guideline for Good Clinical
Practice (GCP), which critics consider a less stringent document and "less
morally authoritative." [
CBC
News]