Update 2014-11-01
1 November, 2014
Covering the period from 1 September to 31 October, 2014
1. By Region/Country
Visit the Project News/Blog for details.
The Premier and Opposition Leader in the state of Victoria told a
Christian lobby group that they will allow a conscience vote
if a private members' bill is introduced to restore freedom to doctors to
decline to participate in abortion. In 2008, the state of Victoria
passed a law that requires an objecting physician to refer a patient to a
non-objecting colleague for abortion. The law was and is opposed by
objecting physicians and others, including the Australian Medical
Association.
A husband and wife in their late eighties, not ill, have announced that
they plan to have a physician kill them as a couple under the Belgian
euthanasia law. Their children have found a physician willing to do so
on the grounds of "mental anguish." For the same reason, judges have
granted the request of a serial murderer and rapist who has been in jail for
30 years. He is said to be suffering from "mental anguish" because he
has no prospect of release.
Justin Trudeau, leader of the Canadian Liberal Party, has declared that a
purported "right" to abortion and contraception is more important than
freedom of conscience and expression. He has reaffirmed his intention to
enforce his views by suppressing freedom of conscience and expression with
respect to abortion among Liberal members of parliament, who will be
required to vote the party line. It seems likely from his public
statements that he would apply the same reasoning to euthanasia and assisted
suicide, should the procedures be legalized by the Supreme Court of Canada
in the pending case of Carter v. Canada. Given his attitude,
it would seem that the Liberal Party of Canada will act to suppress freedom
of conscience in health care if it comes to power, or will, at least, fail
to provide any support for it.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the state regulator of
the practice of medicine in the province, is reviewing its policy on freedom
of conscience for physicians. A first phase of public
consultation attracted almost 1,800 responses in a discussion forum,
most supportive of freedom of conscience. The straw poll on the consultation page asked the question, "Do you
think a physician should be allowed to refuse to provide a patient with a
treatment or procedure because it conflicts with the physician's religious
or moral beliefs?" 32,912 respondents, 25,230 (77%) of
32,912 respondents answered "Yes", 7,616 (23%) answered "No" and 66 were undecided.
The
Catholic Civil Rights League,
Faith and Freedom Alliance and the
Protection of Conscience
Project were jointly granted intervener status in Carter
v. Canada by the Supreme Court of Canada. In
addition to factum, we were allowed an oral submission when the case was
heard in October. The joint intervention emphasized that legalization of physician assisted suicide
and euthanasia would likely adversely affect physicians and health care
workers who object to the procedures for reasons of conscience. In the
event that the court strikes down the law, counsel asked the court to direct
legislators to provide robust protection of conscience provisions to ensure
that objecting health care workers could not be forced to provide euthanasia
or assisted suicide or euthanasia, or to facilitate it through referral.
Although the Canadian Medical Association also intervened and made an oral
submission which highlighted freedom of conscience for physicians, it did
not address the issue of referral. In an email to the Project
Administrator, a physician who was in the courtroom during the hearing said
"it was important for that issue to be voiced and it came best from your
organization."
The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe received evidence
that babies who survive late term abortions are born alive and left to die
or killed. Reports from medical workers suggest that babies who
survive abortions are disposed of with hospital waste or left
to die in other rooms or storerooms, despite signs of life.
Others receive lethal injections or are smothered. The Committee
decided to take no action.
The ruling Christian Democrat party has rejected a recommendation from
the National Ethics Council that incest between consenting adults should
be decriminalized. The Council argued that a "social taboo" should not
be supported by criminal law, and that "The fundamental right of adult siblings to sexual
self-determination is to be weighed more heavily than the abstract idea of
protection of the family." The Council held that, since the law did
not prohibit non-incestuous sexual relations even when there is a
possibility of genetic problems in offspring, it is not justified in
prohibiting incestuous relations. Although it is not clear from the news
report that the Council considered the point, it could also be argued that
the use of contraceptive sterilization or contraception backed up by
abortion would avoid genetic problems. In any case, conflicts of conscience
could be expected if there is an expectation that health care workers will
facilitate incestuous relationships.
Nine members of the Irish medical team at Galway University hospital have
been disciplined for failings in the treatment of Savita Halappanavar, who
died of severe sepsis in the hospital in 2012 after being admitted for a
miscarriage. The legal prohibition of abortion in Ireland at the time
she was in hospital has been repeatedly cited in media reports as having led
to her death. However, an emergency induction/abortion of the kind
contemplated in the new Irish abortion law was legal at that time and had
already been decided upon when she spontaneously delivered a stillborn
daughter.
In 2004, Natasha Smith survived an abortion by induced labour at 26 weeks
gestation. She has just had a tenth birthday, and is good health.
The case illustrates two points of interest. First: it is legitimate to make
an ethical or moral distinction between "termination of a pregnancy" and
"abortion" (with the intention of causing death) after the point at which an
infant may be able to survive with neonatal intensive care. Second:
late term abortions undertaken with the intention of causing death may, in
fact, result in the live birth of an infant who may die, or who may, if
assisted, survive like Natasha. This is a vivid illustration of the
reason some health care workers are unwilling to participate in abortion,
but, depending upon how the surviving infant is treated (palliative care;
deliberate neglect; killing), may also cause conflicts of conscience.
Large numbers of general practitioners are seeking permission to refuse
to accept new patients and/or reducing the geographic coverage of their
practices. Doctors are warning that
services are "on the brink of collapse." It does not seem that public
authorities like the General Medical Council recognize that the suppression
of freedom of conscience among practitioners is likely to make things worse.
Repeating a message she delivered in New Zealand in 2010, Ann Furedi, CEO of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, argues that
the existing English abortion law should be scrapped because abortion is
simply another form of birth control. She noted that abortion rates do not
drop when more effective means of contraception are available because women
are no longer willing to tolerate the consequences of contraceptive failure.
This indicates that acceptance of contraception necessarily entails the
provision of abortion.
A Navy nurse who, for reasons of conscience, has refused to force feed hunger-striking Guantanamo
detainees, may be discharged from the U.S. military and denied pension
benefits. His commanding officer declined to proceed by way of court
martial, instead choosing a process through which the nurse must show cause
why he should not be dismissed.
2. News Items
You can search news items by date, country and topic in the
Project News/Blog.
Decriminalize incest, says German gvmt's ethics council
Elderly couple to die together by assisted suicide even though
they are not ill
Girl 'aborted' to save her mother's life celebrates 10th
birthday
Canadian Liberal party leader orders end to freedom of
conscience and expression in party
Serial murderer and rapist, 50, given right to die under
controversial Belgian euthanasia laws
Navy nurse faces expulsion after refusing to force feed Gitmo
detainees
Murderer in non-capital punishment Belgium granted request to
die
Savita Halappanavar death: nine members of medical team
disciplined
GP crisis as soaring numbers refusing to take patients
Assisted dying: When what if becomes what is
Babies born alive during abortion will receive no help from the
Council of Europe, documents show
Spare parts child or saviour sibling?
There's no "mushy middle" on euthanasia
Babies born alive during abortion will receive no help from the
Council of Europe, documents show
Spare parts child or saviour sibling?
3. Recent Postings
Victorian Premier and Opposition Leader pledge to allow
conscience vote on forcing doctors to participate in abortion
Protest held outside Polish embassy in defence of dismissed
doctor
The Illusion of Neutrality
Freedom of conscience
Freedom of conscience for Ontario physicians a prominent concern
British Pregnancy Advisory Service head says abortion is just
birth control
Project intervenes in the Supreme Court of Canada
Joint intervention in Carter v. Canada
Promises, promises: Canadian law reformers promise
tolerance, freedom of conscience. What happens
after the law is changed is another story.
Moral Conscience Through the Ages: Fifth Century BCE to the
Present
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.
6. Publications of Interest
Nordstrand SJ, Nordstrandagnus MA, Nortvedt P,
Magelssen. Medical students'attitudes towards conscientious objection: a survey J Med Ethics
2014;40:609-612
doi:10.1136/medethics-2013-101482
Foster C.
Dignity and the Ownership and Use of Body Parts.
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics / Volume 23 / Issue 04 /
October 2014, pp 417-430
7. Video
Justin
Trudeau and the Doctrine of Double Truth (Douglas Farrow, Professor of Christian Thought and Kennedy Smith Chair of
Catholic Studies, McGill University. Justin Trudeau's 'doctrine of double truth' leads to
suppression of freedom.
8. Audio
Health
Care Workers & Conscience Pt. 1 (Bridget Campion, Moira McQueen:
Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute)
Health
Care Workers & Conscience, Pt. 2 (Bridget Campion, Moira McQueen:
Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute)