Update 2014-03-01
1 March, 2014
Covering the period from 1 January, 2014 to 28 February, 2014
1. By Region/Country
Visit the Project News/Blog for details.
Canada
Much of the news from Canada concerns attempts or plans to legalize
euthanasia, which would seriously impact health care workers oppposed to the
practice.
Canada’s Liberal Party has overwhelmingly adopted a
policy resolution favouring the legalization of euthanasia and assisted
suicide. However, the policy is not binding on the party leader, Justin
Trudeau, so it is not certain that it will be included in his official
platform in the next Canadian federal election.
The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear an appeal
from the decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal concerning
Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), a lawsuit attempting to
oveturn Canada's prohibition of physician assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Ther are concerns that the Court will reverse its previous ruling against
the procedure.
The Supreme Court of British Columbia
has ruled that family members cannot order caregivers at a nursing home to
starve an 83 year old resident to death. The judge noted that she is not dying, and that to comply
with their wishes would mean that Mrs. Bentley would die from starvation and
dehydration and not an underlying disease.
Bill 52,
Quebec’s euthanasia legislation, failed to pass the National Assembly
before a scheduled two week recess, and it is expected that the government
will call an election after the Assemly resumes sitting. If so, the
bill will die. In the meantime, the secretary for the Collège
des médecins du Québec, the state regulator of medical practice, has
suggested that grounds for euthanasia will likely be broadened after the
bill passes.
A Facebook crusade was launched in Ottawa, Ontario,
against three physicians who decline to prescribe contraceptives after a 25
year old woman had to drive around the block to obtain a
prescription for birth control pills. The campaign led to a
front-page news story, an article in the Medical Post and a province-wide
phone-in CBC radio show. Many of the critics argued that the
physicians should be denied freedom of conscience and religion because
health care in Canada is tax-funded and delivered by the state. The
solution propose by one was, "NO MORE
CHRISTIAN DOCTORS".
The campaign against the three physicians also connects to the campaign
to legalize euthanasia. The reasons offered for forcing objecting
physicians to prescribe or refer for contraception are also used to justify
forcing them to refer for or facilitate euthansia and assisted suicide.
Professor Jocelyn Dowie of Dalhousie University, one of the leading
campaigners for compulsory referral for abortion, is also a leading advocate
for legalizing euthanasia and forcing physicians to refer for the procedure.
Sweden
Longstanding and entrenched Swedish hostility to freedom of conscience in
health care has been exposed by the
case
of
Ellinor Grimmark, a 37 year old midwife who was fired for
refusing to assist with abortions. She has filed a complaint with the
Discrimination Ombudsman (DO). Swedish delegates to the European Union
have long been active in attempting to persuade the Union to adopt similarly
repressive policies.
United States
The Alabama House of Representatives has passed the Health
Care Right of Conscience Act, while
House Bill 1430 has passed the Missouri House of
Representatives. Rep. Gordon Denlinger of Pennsylvania is
reported to be preparing a protection of conscience amendment to the state
constitution.
The Becket Fund
reports 95 lawsuits filed against the controversial Health and Human
Services regulation that forces objecting employers to provide health
insurance for contraception and sterilization. Over 300 plaintiffs are
involved in 47 actions filed by for-profit corporations, 46 by non-profit
corporations, and two class actions. Of the rulings so far, 33
injunctions have been granted to for-profit corporations (six denied) and 19
have been granted to non-profit corporations (one denied). The
American Supreme Court has agreed to hear two appeals concerning the
regulation.
2. News Items
You can search news items by date, country and topic in the
Project News/Blog.
3. Recent Postings
Missouri House Bill 1430
Christian conscience in a secular culture
Swedish nurse takes a
stand on conscience rights
Complicity after the fact
"NO MORE
CHRISTIAN DOCTORS"
Conscientious objection to
patriarchal norms
Denlinger statement on freedom of conscience amendment to
Pennsylvania Constitution
4. Action Items
None noted.
5. Conferences/Papers
The Project will post notices of conferences
that are explore and support the principle freedom of conscience, including the
legitimate role of moral or religious conviction in shaping law and public
policy in pluralist states or societies.
3rd Annual
Conference on Medicine & Religion
Responding
to Limits and Possibilities of the Body
March 7-9, 2014
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Truth, Conscience and Religious Freedom
April 4-5, 2014
Franciscan University of
Steubenville, Ohio, USA
6. Publications of Interest
Harter TD.
Toward accommodating physicians’ conscientious objections: an argument for
public disclosure.
J Med Ethics doi:10.1136/medethics-2013-101731
Brody H, Leonard SE, Nie J-B, Weindling P.
U.S. Responses to
Japanese Wartime Inhuman Experimentation after World War II: National
Security and Wartime Exigency. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics /
Volume 23 / Issue 02 /
April 2014, pp 220-230
Juth N, Lynöe N.
Zero tolerance against patriarchal norms? A cross-sectional study of Swedish
physicians' attitudes towards young females requesting virginity certificates or
hymen restoration. J Med Ethics doi:10.1136/medethics-2013-101675
7. Video
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8. Audio
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