Ethics Archives - Page 64 of 87 - Protection of Conscience Project Library

(Correspondence) Abortion debate continues

Linda Spano, Michael Brennan

Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ — Canadian Medical Association Journal

Extract
. . . we all – including Reynolds – operate from a biased set of basic assumptions. Is it really antireligious to suggest that the antiabortion forces are largely motivated by fundamental religious views that represent fixed basic assumptions? We think not. . . . Medical intervention includes helping people achieve their potential according to their own objectives as well as many other “appropriate” activities, such as the therapeutic termination of pregnancy. . . .The abortion debate is not entirely about abortion or religion, nor is it even a debate. . . the argument is about the freedom of choice and the access of all Canadian women to safe, competent medical care and about the refusal of most Canadians to submit to the irrational demands of a vociferous minority. . .

Spano L, Brennan M. (Correspondence) Abortion debate continues. Can Med Assoc J. 1993 Jun 15;148(12):2112-2113.

(News) Allegations of Nazi past force resignation of WMA president-elect

Patrick Sullivan

Extract
the World Medical Association (WMA) . . . recently found itself caught up in the most controversial problem in WMA history. At issue was the appointment of Dr. Hans-Joachim Sewering, 76, as the WMA’s president-elect. He was to have become president in October. Angry physicians belonging to several WMA member organizations, including the CMA, demanded that the appointment be overturned because Sewering had belonged to the Schutzstaffel, the Nazi elite guard, before World War II. . . . Sewering has been heavily involved in WMA affairs for more than 20 years.

Sullivan P. Allegations of Nazi past force resignation of WMA president-elect. Can Med Assoc J. 1995;148(6):995-996.

Creating Moral Space for Nurses

Leah L Curtin

Extract
(Lengthy 1983 editorial repeated verbatim in 1993 includes the following) “No nurse should be required to give any drug if (a) she is not competent to give it or (b) she has problems of conscience with regard to its administration. If, for these reasons, a nurse refuses to give a drug, another nurse may do so. The original nurse should receive inservice and/or counseling. If she still has conscientious objections, she should not be coerced. The patient’s right to have/refuse a drug should be protected by meticulous adherence to the principles and procedures of informed consent. However, his right to the drug is not greater than another human being’s (the nurse’s) obligation to practice with integrity. Therefore, if one nurse will not give the drug – the head nurse, coordinator or supervisor should give the drug.” If none of these nurses can, in conscience, administer the drug, then the physician who ordered it must give It himself or find another physician who will do it for him.

Curtin LL. Creating Moral Space for Nurses. Nurs Manag. 1993 Mar;24(3):18-19.

(Correspondence) Clinicians who provide abortions: the thinning ranks

Denis Cavanaugh

Extract
Dr. Grimes identifies abortion as “the most divisive social issue of our time,” but he is contributing to the divisiveness by raising these issues in those of us who consider elective abortion a social evil as well as a “distasteful chore.” Abortionists don’t have all the altruism, and if elective abortion were not a billiondollar- a-year business, there would be even fewer volunteers. . .the legal entitlement of a woman to elective abortion cannot be absolute to the extent of suppressing the values and conscience of her physician, so there is no reason why a resident should have an obligation to perform such abortions.

Cavanaugh D. (Correspondence) Clinicians who provide abortions: the thinning ranks. Obst Gyn. 1993 February;81(2):318-319

Has the Time Come for Doctor Death: Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legalized

Wendy N Weigand

Extract
The implications of legalizing euthanasia for the medical profession and the potential for abuses are very troubling. Before public policy or legislation is formulated, the ethical issues inherent in the practice of euthanasia must be critically examined. . . It is the author’s assertion that the legalization of assisted suicide and/or physician-aid-in-dying is not the proper course of action at this time. There are too many other options available to doctors, nurses, hospitals and other health care institutions which must be exercised to their fullest extent before any form of active euthanasia is legalized.

Weigand WN. Has the Time Come for Doctor Death: Should Physician-Assisted Suicide Be Legalized. J Law Health. 1993;7(2):321-350.

Female circumcision: When medical ethics confronts cultural values

Eike-Henner Kluge

Extract
Canadian physicians cannot consistently accept the principle of respect for people in the name of medical ethics, and then perform procedures they know to be medically inappropriate, harmful and demeaning only because they do not want to offend a misplaced cultural sensitivity.

Kluge E-H. Female circumcision: When medical ethics confronts cultural values. Can Med Assoc J. 1993 Jan 15;148(2):288-289.

(Correspondence) Readers Advocate Pro-conscience, Not Pro-Choice (Invited response)

Susan Wysocki

Extract
A nurse practitioner’s personal position on this issue is irrelevant in tem1s of the provision of patient care. Our responsibility as nurse practitioners is to provide our patients with information that helps them to make their own decisions based on the constructs of their own beliefs and needs. This does not mean that nurse practitioners who find a patient’s reproductive-health decisions to be in conflict with their own morals and beliefs should be forced to counsel on those choices. Instead, they have a responsibility to ensure that the patient has her needs met with another provider.

Wysocki S. (Correspondence) Readers Advocate Pro-conscience, Not Pro-Choice (Invited response). Nurse Pract. 1992 Oct;17(10):8-9

(Correspondence) Responsibility and abortion

Glenn Jones

Extract
Termination of pregnancy is the act of a powerful person (the pregnant woman) against a voiceless, innocent and powerless person. How does the misuse of power by women in this situation prove that their androgynous and gynocentric approaches to the use of power are different or better? . . . I agree with McEvoy that we must determine what abortion means over time to those most affected by it – women. However, she has failed to do that analysis.

Jones G. (Correspondence) Responsibility and abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1992 Sep 15;147(6):840-842.

Religious Ethics and Active Euthanasia in a Pluralistic Society

Courtney S Campbell

Abstract
This article sets out a descriptive typology of religious perspectives on legalized euthanasia — political advocacy, individual conscience, silence, embedded opposition, and formal public opposition — and then examines the normative basis for these perspectives through the themes of sovereignty, stewardship, and the self. It also explores the public relevance of these religious perspectives for debates over legalized euthanasia, particularly in the realm of public policy. Ironically, the moral discourse of religious traditions on euthanasia may gain public relevance at the expense of its religious content. Nonetheless, religious traditions can provide a context of ultimacy and meaning to this debate, which is a condition for genuine pluralism.

Campbell CS. Religious Ethics and Active Euthanasia in a Pluralistic Society. Kennedy Inst Ethics J. 1992;2(3):253-277.

(Correspondence) Responsibility and abortion

Donald G Jansen

Extract
Exploring the question of a woman’s responsibility in becoming pregnant in order to decide on the permissibility of terminating that pregnancy is flawed, because the woman does not answer the first question: Am I killing another human being? If the answer is No, then perhaps McEvoy’s exercise of looking at specific examples of women seeking terminations may be useful. . . . If the answer is Yes, then all other considerations, compelling as they may be, will not have any greater value than that of the life of an unborn child. The woman’s degree of responsibility in becoming pregnant should not decide the value or fate of human life, which remains inviolable.

Jansen DG. (Correspondence) Responsibility and abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1992 Sep 15;147(6):840.