Protection of Conscience Project Library
Service, not Servitude
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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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The recent decision of the CMA Board of Directors to approach the House of Commons legislative committee in regard to the proposed abortion law is not a bad idea; it’s just that the reasoning is unimaginable, and the conclusion the board has reached is outrageous. . . . Abortion remains what it has always been: the destruction of innocent life. As a medical procedure it shares company with the foulest of deeds. . . Are Canadians to believe that abortion should become an acceptable procedure in hospitals because physicians kill best?
Jansen D. (Correspondence) CMA’s response to the abortion bill. Can Med Assoc J. 1990 Mar 15;142(6):515-516.
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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.
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“When the doctor thinks he is closer to his god than he is to his patient, that’s when he sins with style and vigour.” (He did not add “ignoramus”; it was implicit in his sarcastic stare.) I beg to offer his advice to all those who would tell their patients how to behave morally. Don’t exceed the DPG ratio. Let the patient make the decision for herself and carry the responsibility. You do likewise – for yourself. After all, you are just another person with specialized knowledge, and that implies specialized limits. By all means don’t do what you don’t want to do, but don’t play godlet. It doesn’t suit the image of dispassionate adviser.
Bart J. (Correspondence) Abortion and the DPG ratio. Can Med Assoc J. 1990;142(5):437-438.
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The views expressed by Dr. A.J. Cunningham (Can Med Assoc J 1989; 141: 869) are offensive and insulting to many members of our profession. Perhaps they are meant to be. . . . For Cunningham to suggest that those who provide abortion services do so only for gain and that they are to be likened to Clifford Olsen is scandalous. Cunningham’s righteousness does not grace the pages of CMAJ.
Amies DR. (Correspondence) Induced abortion. Can Med Assoc J. 1990;142(2):97-98. Available from:
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What kind of society does Klein advocate that would prevent questions from being put to the medical profession because they do not reflect his own bias? The physicians and surgeons polled were very much aware of the abortion issue and were not likely to be influenced by a loaded opinion poll. The fact that 16% of the 50 000 physicians who were polled responded suggests that a considerable number of Canadian doctors are willing to have their views recorded, and the fact that 68% were critical of CMA policy indicates that several thousand doctors are not in favour of it. Compare the 40 to 50 letters received by the CMA concerning the poll, most of which urged the CMA to ignore the poll results and to confirm the present policy.
Sim M. (Correspondence) CPL poll on abortion angers many physicians. Can Med Assoc J. 1990 Jan 1;142(1).
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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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It is good that in their sympathetic article (Can Med Assoc J 1989; 140: 799-801, 805) Drs. Ruth Stirtzinger and G. Erlick Robinson remind us that “for [the mother] this has been the loss of a baby”. But in their review they incidentally say that in a group of women described by Simon and associates’ “there were no reported cases of psychiatric symptoms attributable to therapeutic abortion [emphasis mine]”. This statement is not made in the article quoted. Simon and associates wrote that “the amount of psychopathology seen following spontaneous abortion over the same 10 year follow-up period is minor when compared to the therapeutic abortion group”.
de Bellefeuille P. (Correspondence) The psychologic effects of spontaneous abortion. Can. Med. Assoc. J.. 1989;141(6):508-511.