Protection of Conscience Project Library
Service, not Servitude
Extract
Doctors, won’t you admit yet that abortion is the only medical act other than euthanasia whose purpose is to kill people?
Stephens DS. (Correspondence) CMA’s response to abortion bill. Can Med Assoc J. 1990 Apr 15;142(8):798.
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Unwanted pregnancy is a social and economic issue. No one would deny that there are very real hardships created by unwanted pregnancy. I have personal experience to attest to this. It seems to me that killing your baby is the worst possible solution. Statements such as “a woman is her fetus” are untrue and do nothing to enlighten the debate.
Shamess BA. (Correspondence) A woman is her fetus? Can Med Assoc J. 1990 Mar 01;142(5):437.
Extract
Unlike Dr. Heaton I am a born-again nonbeliever and therefore do not accept his version of where it all begins. With that as a “given” my logic is flawless, as is his with a different “given”. Unhappily, the two positions remain irreconcilable.
Waugh D. (Correspondence) When passion displaces logic (Dr. Waugh responds). Can Med Assoc J. 1990 Jan 01;142(1):12.
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I believe that playing with words such as embryo and fetus to justify destroying human life is hogwash. If there was not money in it, how many abortions would be done? The CMA policy summary on induced abortion (Can Med Assoc J 1988; 139: 1176A) recommends that there be no discrimination directed against doctors who do not assist in abortions, but there is such discrimination. On three occasions I have been asked to suppress my beliefs on abortion as a condition of employment and had to turn down jobs. Mind you, I have to suppress some revulsion working with colleagues who perform abortions, as I would if I had to associate with Clifford Olsen. But, as with our patients, we may not approve of their lifestyles, but we have to accept them as human beings.
Cunningham AJ. (Correspondence) Induced abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1989 Nov 01;141(9):869.
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If a mother decided to kill her newborn baby everyone would be shocked, but if she decides to kill the fetus before birth, say at 20 weeks, half of the country cheers.
Coffey PG. (Correspondence) Induced abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1989 Nov 01;141(9):869-870.
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An ancient Chinese curse, “may you live in interesting times”, may turn out to be punishment for some of our misdeeds as the 20th century draws to a close. . . . Unless our society is willing to accept a compromise between the humane aspirations of pro- choice and the species priority of pro-life, we may be doomed to continue the cyclic alternation of dominant conservative and then liberal forces, as has been the case during the last several centuries. These interesting times may indeed be a curse.
Waugh D. When passion displaces logic. Can Med Assoc J. 1989 Oct 01;141(7):707.
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the most heated debate at the 122nd annual meeting didn’t come until its dying hours, when the abortion issue was raised in three separate recommendations put forward under new business. . . .The first recommendation, and the one that received the loudest criticism, was . . .”that many Canadian physicians do not agree with the 1988 CMA recommendations regarding induced abortion . . . the amended version was defeated by a large margin. . . . A recommendation that the CMA reassess its policy on induced abortion “with specific direction that the rights of the unbom child be considered” was referred to the Committee on Ethics, which is already working to establish a CMA policy on fetal rights.
Sullivan P. Attempts to change abortion policy find little support at annual meeting. Can Med Assoc J. 1989;141(6):585-596, 588, 590. Available from:
Extract
Apart from such simple principles as the Golden Rule and the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number of People, what universal moral principles are there? Apparently Lemoine’s value system would compel unwilling pregnant women to become mothers against their will (the view of the Roman Catholic Church and other antichoice groups); this is in direct opposition to the position that couples should be allowed to regulate their own reproductivity, the view of the United Nations declaration on family planning, to which Canada was a signatory. Neither of these moral positions is universal or based on absolutes. The first arose out of the Christian Church’s desire to implement policies of demographic aggression against all other groups. The second arose in this century out of our collective appreciation that such policies may spell extinction for all forms of life on this planet. Many of the bloodiest episodes in history came about as a result of one group’s seeking to impose “universal” moral principles on others.
Watters WW. (Correspondence) “Universal” moral principles. Can Med Assoc J. 1989 May 01;140(9):1016.
Abstract
This paper uses the Churches’ responses to the controversy over abortion as a measure of the internalization of ecumenism. The data used in the essay include interviews with ecumenical officers and the minutes of the American Bishops Pro-life Committee. The main conclusion is that during the controversy “mainstream” Protestantism and Roman Catholicism reverted to post-Reformation and pre-Vatican II ideological roles, with Catholicism opposing under the banner of objective moral truth the legalization of abortion and liberal Protestantism under the banner of subjective conscience providing a belated religious justification to the legalization promoted first by secularist activists. This reversal to historic ideological roles actually distorted the more nuanced positions of these Churches in the controversy, but the lack of an ecumenical context obscured these shared tensions and prevented the Churches from contributing to a better public structuring of the moral ambiguities most Americans felt and still experience about abortion and the extent of its legalization. The essay concludes that only in an ecumenical context can religious pluralism lead to more inclusive moral commitments rather than to a further privatization of religion.
Kelly J. Ecumenism and Abortion: A Case Study of Pluralism, Privatization and Public Conscience. Rev Relig Res. 1989 Mar;30(3):225-235.
Abstract
Court-ordered caesarian sections against the explicit wishes of the pregnant woman have been criticised as violations of the woman’s fundamental right to autonomy and to the inviolability of the person-particularly, so it is argued, because the fetus in utero is not yet a person. This paper examines the logic of this position and argues that once the fetus has passed a certain stage of neurological development it is a person, and that then the whole issue becomes one of balancing of rights: the right-to-life of the fetal person against the right to autonomy and inviolability of the woman; and that the fetal right usually wins.
Kluge E-H. When caesarian section operations imposed by a court are justified. J Med Ethics. 1988 Dec;14(4) 206-211.