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

Barbara Yaffe

Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ — Canadian Medical Association Journal

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:

(News) Canadian obstetric care system among finest in world, major CMA study finds

Patrick Sullivan

Extract
Canada’s standard of obstetric care is excellent, and although some improvements can be made, they can be carried out within the existing system. That is the main finding from a major CMA study on obstetric care, the first of its kind in Canada, which has been sent to association members with this issue of CMAJ. . . . There is no reason for Canada to introduce a midwifery system since there is neither a calculable need nor a significant demand, the CMA has concluded.

Sullivan P. Canadian obstetric care system among finest in world, major CMA study finds. Can Med Assoc J. 1987;136(6):643, 646, 648-649.

Artificial Reproduction and Child Custody

Bernard M Dickens

This article considers general principles of child custody law in regard to children born following artificial reproduction that employed donated sperm, ova
or embryos, and the law applicable when women give birth to children conceived in order to be surrendered to others (notably their biological fathers). Claims to parental rights raise the issue of who the legal parents are, and may conflict with the apparent best interests of such children and the state’s view of its responsibility. The article considers interests of the unconceived child, the embryo and fetus in utero, the embryo extra uterum and a child born of donation, and the status of sperm, ovum and embryo donors and of “surrogate” mothers. Particular attention is given to the Ontario Law Reform Commission’s Report on Human Artificial Reproduction and Related Matters (1985), which is the first Canadian report to make wide-ranging recommendations on these issues .

Dickens B. Artificial Reproduction and Child Custody. Can Bar Rev 1987 Mar; 66(1): 49-75.

(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.