Ethics Archives - Page 67 of 81 - Protection of Conscience Project Library

(Correspondence) “Pro-abortion” versus “pro-choice”

Brian A Shamess

Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ — Canadian Medical Association Journal

Extract
Although he may feel uncomfortable about being involved in abortions, the term “pro-abortion” is accurate. The term “pro-choice”, medically speaking, refers to a choice between killing a fetus and allowing it to live. The fetus is distinct in every way from the mother. . . . This is a medical fact. Therefore, doctors who perform abortions and the staff of abortion clinics are “pro-abortion”. Certainly they are “pro-choice” as well, in that they will allow a woman to choose between killing and granting life to the unborn child. . .

Shamess BA. (Correspondence) “Pro-abortion” versus “pro-choice”. Can Med Assoc J. 1988 May 15;138(10):890.

Abortion: it is time for doctors to get off the fence

Myre Sim

Extract
When Germany occupied Holland during the Second World War, it declared that it would introduce its Nuremberg Laws. They allowed for the sterilization and liquidation of the “unfit” and other acts that were later declared crimes against humanity. . . .Dutch physicians declared that they had to accept the fact they were living in an occupied country during wartime and were, therefore, bound by certain laws, but they reaffirmed their responsibility to respect all human life. They would not yield on the issue. . . . Dutch doctors preserved their ethical code. . . .[a] medical procedure [that] involves the destruction of human life. . . strikes at the roots of medical ethics: respect for human life. I consider abortion on demand the precursor of euthanasia on demand. . . Are doctors to wait to see which way things are going before they decide which path to follow, or should they take a lead in restoring honour to the profession?

Sim M. Abortion: it is time for doctors to get off the fence. Can Med Assoc J. 1988 Apr 15;138(8):742-743.

(News) New committee will review CMA’s abortion policy, board decides

Lucian Blair

Extract
The CMA will establish an ad hoc committee to review the association’s abortion policy in the wake of the Supreme Court of Canada’s Jan. 28 ruling that over- turned Criminal Code restrictions on abortion.

Blair L. (News) New committee will review CMA’s abortion policy, board decides. Can Med Assoc J. 1988;138(7):643.

(News) The abortion issue in Newfoundland: a province divided

Barbara Yaffe

Extract
The adjectives range from “bloody outrageous” to “appalling and disgusting”, for just about no one is satisfied with a therapeutic abortion service that annually prompts hundreds of Newfoundland women to leave the province to get abortions. . . many women cannot get abortions in Newfoundland, in part because most of the province’s doctors won’t perform them, and in part because community standards are conservative. . . Dr. Carl Robbins, medical director of the General Hospital, thinks local doctors are unwilling to perform abortions because of personal conviction and the influence of values developed while training.

Yaffe B. The abortion issue in Newfoundland: a province divided. Can Med Assoc J. 1987 Apr 15;136(8):865-866.

The Nurse’s Appeal to Conscience

Ellen W Bemal, Patricia S Hoover

Abstract
A case is presented in which a registered nurse caring for a 63-year-old patient in severe pain from terminal cancer disagrees with the attending physician’s order of morphine for fear that it will hasten the patient’s death. The nurse finds herself on duty alone one night when the patient and her daughter request more morphine. Bernal and Hoover contend that, because the nurse apparently took no prior action to explore alternative courses of pain relief for the patient or to make other arrangements for care, her duty of care overrides her appeal to conscience in the immediate situation. Aroskar believes that the nurse in this situation must give the injection, find someone else who can, or contact the physician. She holds, however, that nurses should be allowed to refuse to carry out particular procedures based on an appeal to personal conscience if the decision is founded on accurate information, acceptance of consequences, and advance planning.

Bemal EW, Hoover PS. The Nurse’s Appeal to Conscience. Hastings Cent Rep. 1987;25-26. Available from:

(Correspondence) Newfoundland has no legal abortion services

Louis A Aubé

Extract
Dr. Carl Robbins finds the fact that abortions are not available in his province “disgraceful, bordering on the unethical” (Can Med Assoc J 1986; 135: 910). He must be a young man, because it wasn’t long ago that it was disgraceful for a doctor to do abortions – besides which, it was a crime. As for Dr. Robbins’ call to ethics, I wonder what he is using for the basis of his code. Certainly not the Judeo-Christian formula. It must be the new “situation ethics”, which as applied to our general conduct is producing frightening results.

Aubé LA. (Correspondence) Newfoundland has no legal abortion services. Can Med Assoc J. 1987;136(4):324.

(Correspondence) Abortion: an issue that won’t go away

Ernest A Johnson

Extract
I have, as I am sure do many doctors, a framed version of the Hippocratic Oath prominently and proudly displayed in my waiting room. . . I had a very busy general medical and surgical practice, and during that time it was understandably considered ethical to do a truly therapeutic abortion when this very occasional truly medical necessity arose. . . .Times have changed, but there are some things that cannot change if we are to retain our self-respect as professionals.

Johnson EA. (Correspondence) Abortion: an issue that won’t go away. Can Med Assoc J. 1986 Nov 15;135(10):1062-1064.

Prenatal diagnosis and female abortion: a case study in medical law and ethics

Bernard M Dickens

Abstract
Alarm over the prospect that prenatal diagnostic techniques, which permit identification of fetal sex and facilitate abortion of healthy but unwanted female fetuses has led some to urge their outright prohibition. This article argues against that response. Prenatal diagnosis permits timely action to preserve and enhance the life and health of fetuses otherwise endangered, and, by offering assurance of fetal normality, may often encourage continuation of pregnancies otherwise vulnerable to termination. Further, conditions in some societies may sometimes render excusable the inclination to abort certain healthy female fetuses. In places where abortion for fetal sex alone is recognised as unethical, however, medical licensing authorities already possess the power to discipline, for professional misconduct, physicians who prescribe or perform prenatal diagnosis purely to identify fetal sex, or those who disclose fetal sex when that is unrelated to the fetus’s medical condition.

Dickens BM. Prenatal diagnosis and female abortion: a case study in medical law and ethics. J Med Ethics 1986 Sep; 12(3): 143-144.

The abortion of thinking

Paul de Bellefeille

Extract
The Canadian Medical Association’s policy summary on abortion must be questioned. Although the summary may represent the consensus of some people at the executive level, it does not correspond to the views of the majority of CMA members. . . . medical problems require medical solutions; and when an expectant mother has medical difficulties the medical solution in good contemporary obstetrics is almost never termination of the pregnancy. The solution to socioeconomic problems must also be socioeconomic. To propose medical solutions for socioeconomic problems, and destructive ones at that, is illogical and shows a sad lack of confidence in our society’s ability to care for its own.

de Bellefeille P. The abortion of thinking. Can Med Assoc J. 1986;134(2):115-117.

Professions as the conscience of society

Paul Sieghart

Abstract
Ethics is no less of a science than any other. It has its roots in conflicts of interest between human beings, and in their conflicting urges to behave either selfishly or altruistically. Resolving such conflicts leads to the specification of rules of conduct, often expressed in terms of rights and duties. In the special case of professional ethics, the paramount rule of conduct is altruism in the service of a ‘noble’ cause, and this distinguishes true professions from other trades or occupations. If professional ethics come into conflict with national laws, the professional today can test the legitimacy of such laws by reference to internationally agreed legal standards in the field of human rights, and so help to perform the role of ‘professions as the conscience of society’.

Sieghart P. Professions as the conscience of society. J Med Ethics. 1985 Sep;11(3):117-122.