Service, not Servitude
Extract
More specifically, this article explores the question: Is it morally permissible for a lawyer to decline representation of a prospective client who seeks to obtain a legal but immoral objective, if the lawyer reasonably believes that the prospective client will be otherwise unable to obtain legal representation?
Collett TS. The Common Good and the Duty to Represent: Must the Last Lawyer in Town Take Any Case? South Texas Law Review. 1999;40(137-179)
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Bruce Ackerman’s “We The People: Transformations” is elegantly conceived, theoretically clever, rhetorically inventive, and empirically convincing, but it remains ideologically inadequate. . . . In the absence of attention to how people in the United States have come to think about a higher law, Ackerman has fallen back on a Whiggish view where love of liberty and justice is assumed to be part of the human endowment, at least of American humans. Fused convictions about democratic governance and liberal aspirations motivate Ackerman’s We the People. . . . This Whiggish overlay upon the argument of Transformations appears most strikingly in the discussion of Reconstruction, in which all acts are optimized-whether those of intransigent Radical Republicans or white supremacist Southern Redeemers. Some higher force is orchestrating this partisan cacophony into a melodious resolution. . . . I will pose the proposition that two higher law concepts have polarized American politics from Alexander Hamilton through Ronald Reagan, and that they need to be put into the picture of Ackerman’s grand transformative moments.
Appleby J. The Americans’ higher-law thinking behind higher lawmaking. Yale Law J. 1999;108(8):1995-2001.
Abstract
Human rights protections have developed to resist governmental intrusion in private life and choices. Abortion laws have evolved in legal practice to protect not fetuses as such but state interests, particularly in prenatal life. National and international tribunals are increasingly called upon to resolve conflicts between state enforcement of continuation of pregnancy against women’s wishes and women’s reproductive choices. Legal recognition that human life begins at conception does not resolve conflicts between respect due to women’s reproductive self-determination and due to prenatal life. Human rights protect healthcare providers’ claims to conscientious objection, but not at the cost of women’s lives and enduring health.
Cook RJ, Dickens BM. Human rights and abortion laws. Int J Gynecol Obstet. 1999 Apr 22;65(81-87.
Extract
An American antiabortion publication that was mailed to Canadian physicians has angered many Ontario doctors and caused Queen’s University to contact police. The 32-page pamphlet, Quack the Ripper , was mailed by Life Dynamics Inc. of Denton, Texas, in March. . . the publication’s goal is to dissuade young physicians from providing abortions by insulting those who do perform them.
Sullivan P. US antiabortion pamphlet stirs anger north of the border. Can Med Assoc J. 1999;160(7):977.
Abstract
Objectives
In 2 successive decades since 1967, legal accommodation of abortion has grown in many countries. The objective of this study was to assess whether liberalizing trends have been maintained in the last decade and whether increased protection of women’s human rights has influenced legal reform.
Methods
A worldwide review was conducted of legislation and judicial rulings affecting abortion, and legal reforms were measured against governmental commitments made under international human rights treaties and at United Nations conferences.
Results
Since 1987, 26 jurisdictions have extended grounds for lawful abortion, and 4 countries have restricted grounds. Additional limits on access to legal abortion services include restrictions on funding of services, mandatory counseling and reflection delay requirements, third party authorizations, and blockades of abortion clinics.
Conclusions
Progressive liberalization has moved abortion laws from a focus on punishment toward concern with women’s health and welfare and with their human rights. However, widespread maternal mortality and morbidity show that reform must be accompanied by accessible abortion services and improved contraceptive care and information.
Cook RJ, Dickens BM, Bliss LE. International Developments in Abortion Law from 1988 to 1998. Am J Public Health. 1999;89(4):579-586.
Extract
Sniper-style attacks on 3 Canadian physicians are “terrorist acts,” police say,and the hunt for the attackers now involves a coordinated national effort. “This is terrorism against doctors as a whole,” says Inspector Keith McCaskill, a member of the national police task force investigating the attacks. “There may be a tendency to politicize this, but that’s not right. This is criminal activity.”
Sibbald B. Police task force targets “terrorists” behind sniper-style attacks on MDs. Can Med Assoc J. 1998 Nov 03;159(9):1153-1154.
Extract
Canada’s comparative ranking in terms of the proportion of therapeutic abortions involving married women should not have been described as a rate. The point being made in the paragraph in question is that the proportion of women receiving abortions in Canada who are either married or in common-law relationships, about 25%, is not unique in international terms.
Buske L. (Correspondence) Abortion in proportion (The author responds). Can Med Assoc J. 1998;159(4):318.
Extract
Most Canadian women who have abortions are single, but a recent Statistics Canada study indicates that more than a quarter of them (26.7%) were either married or in a common-law relationship.
Buske L. Abortion and the married woman. Can Med Assoc J. 1998;159(4):992.
Extract
It appears that on many characteristics there are significant differences among members and non-members of HECs. Whether it be a self-selection bias or some other factor, whatever is at work on the composition of HECs seems to have a profound effect pulling toward homogeneity of the membership. This is not necessarily bad if it leads to the best ethical thinking in the institution. It does, however, give pause for thought considering the current widespread emphasis on cultural diversity in society. If diversity is thought to be desirable, is such homogeneity within HECs appropriate?
Self DJ, Skeel JD. The Moral Reasoning of HEC* Members (*Hospital Ethics Committee). HEC Forum. 1998 Mar;10(1):43-54.
Extract
Introduction
This paper describes and analyzes a problematic fictionalized case in health care ethics. Inherent in the case is the complex interplay between adolescent decision-making, clinical uncertainty and religious beliefs that most health care providers find alien and that challenge their professional norms. The paper examines the way the case unfolded, paying special attention to the “consciences” of the health care providers involved in the case, and ends with a few reflections on some of the conflicts of conscience that emerged.
Webb SL, Marshall MF, Boettcher F, Perlmutter M. Refusal of Treatment by an Adolescent: The Deliverances of Different Consciences. HEC Forum. 1998 Mar;10(1):9-23.