1991
M.B. Agostino, M.G. Marinis, V. Wahlberg
- Abstract: The present study was undertaken to
investigate the opinions of health professionals working in family planning
clinics in Italy and Sweden. The comparison of two such different countries
seemed of interest both to describe differences and/or similarities between
the samples as well as to analyze factors that could influence
professionals' opinions regarding abortion. A questionnaire was distributed
to doctors, nurses and social workers in family planning clinics in Rome,
Italy and in Gothenburg, Sweden. The opinions of the health professionals in
the two countries investigated were similar in many respects, both regarding
their attitudes to abortion as well as their considerations concerning the
care offered to the woman/couple undergoing an abortion. Fifty-nine percent
of the Italian sample and 68% of the Swedish sample considered abortion
justifiable on the same indications as those laid down in the laws, while
36% of the Italian and 32% of the Swedish professionals considered it
justifiable only on medical grounds and 5% in the Italian sample did not
justify abortion at all. In both Italy and Sweden, doctors as well as nurses
suggest that the preventive work should be increased and that the
psychological care for women undergoing abortion has to be improved.
M.B. Agostino, V. Wahlberg
- Abstract: In the last two decades family life and
family planning have developed in a similar way in different European
countries although legal and social background factors were very different
in the past. Countries like Italy and Sweden are bipolar when compared. In
this study nursing students' attitudes towards abortion and family planning
in Italy and Sweden are described, to identify general characteristics of
students that could be of interest to compare and to identify reasons for
approval and/or disapproval of abortion. Some social characteristics of the
students are similar, like fathers' profession/activity. Italian nursing
students are more religious. Some factual knowledge is low in both samples.
The nursing student's feelings, attitudes towards abortion are expressed
differently in the countries. Many Italian students believe abortion is
justified only on medical grounds, Swedish students indicate psychological
effects as the most likely consequence both for woman and for man.
Daniels N. Duty to treat or right to refuse? Hastings Cent Rep. 1991
Mar-Apr;21(2):36-46. PMID: 2045281
Norman Daniels
- By entering the medical profession, physicians have consented to
accept a standard level of risk of infection. In most instances the
risk of contracting H IV does not exceed this level . . .
Eike-Henner Kluge
- On Mar. 21, 1991, the Supreme Court of Canada handed down its long
awaited decision in R. v. Sullivan and Lemay. . . The case is of
interest to doctors, but not because it deals with midwifery and its
legality in Canada - the Supreme Court decision is silent on that
point. At issue was the status of the human fetus: Is a full-term
human fetus that is partially born a person in the eyes of the
criminal law? The court decided it is not. . .
John Warden
- No sooner has the abortion debate been settled for the time being than
its replacement comes into view. In the lobbies and corridors of
Westminster it is the legalisation of euthanasia that has taken up the
running as the issue of conscience for parliament in the 1990s. . .
B.D. Weinstein