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0 - Page 2 of 2 - Protection of Conscience Project Library
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Euthanasia in the Netherlands: The Legal Framework

Raphael Cohen-Almagor

Michigan State University DCL Journal of International Law
Michigan State University DCL Journal of International Law

Abstract
The aim of this paper is to outline the legal framework of euthanasia in the Netherlands and to analyze the leading court cases involving adults. I will first explain the legal ambiguity that existed in the Netherlands until the enacting of the euthanasia law on April 10, 2001 which is supposed to come into effect in early 2002 and then discuss how did the courts treat cases of mercy killings.


Cohen-Almagor R. Euthanasia in the Netherlands: The Legal Framework. Michigan State U-DCL J Int Law. 2001; 10:319-342.

Moving From Compliance to Conscience: Why We Can and Should Improve on the Ethics of Clinical Research

Jeffrey P Kahn

JAMA Internal Medicine
JAMA Internal Medicine

Abstract
. . . an emphasis on oversight and compliance misses the point. By overly focusing on making sure that rules are followed, we push researchers away from a real appreciation for issues and into doing whatever it takes to expedite the oversight process. This approach can cause researchers to quickly lose sight of the point of research protections – the rights and interests of the subjects themselves.


Kahn JP. Moving From Compliance to Conscience: Why We Can and Should Improve on the Ethics of Clinical Research. Arch Intern Med. 2001 Apr 09;161(7) 925-928.

(News) Over-the-counter emergency contraception available soon across the country?

Barbara Sibbald

Extract
Following a Feb. 16 meeting with the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC) and 4 other organizations, Health Canada has started working toward making emergency postcoital contraception available without a prescription across the country . . . Senikas says some opponents equate EPC with abortion and “have this misplaced notion that emergency contraception is like RU-486. It’s not. It will never displace a pregnancy.


Sibbald B. Over-the-counter emergency contraception available soon across the country? Can Med Assoc J. 2001 Mar 20;164(6):849.

Reproductive Health Services and the Law and Ethics of Conscientious Objection

Bernard M Dickens

Medicine and Law
Medicine and Law

Abstract
Reproductive health services address contraception, sterilization and abortion, and new technologies such as gamete selection and manipulation,in vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood. Artificial fertility control and medically assisted reproduction are opposed by conservative religions and philosophies, whose adherents may object to participation. Physicians’ conscientious objection to non-lifesaving interventions in pregnancy have long been accepted. Nurses’ claims are less recognized, allowing nonparticipation in abortions but not refusal of patient preparation and aftercare. Objections of others in health- related activities, such as serving meals to abortion patients and typing abortion referral letters, have been disallowed. Pharmacists may claim refusal rights over fulfilling prescriptions for emergency (post-coital) contraceptives and drugs for medical (i.e. non-surgical) abortion. This paper addresses limits to conscientious objection to participation in reproductive health services, and conditions to which rights of objection may be subject. Individuals have human rights to freedom of religious conscience, but institutions, as artificial legal persons, may not claim this right.


Dickens BM. Reproductive Health Services and the Law and Ethics of Conscientious Objection. Med Law. 2001;20(2)283-293.

(News) Teen pregnancy rate down, abortion rate up

Lynda Buske

Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ
Canadian Medical Association Journal

Extract
The rate of pregnancy among Canadian teenagers aged 15 to 19 has declined by about 20% since 1974 . . . However, the proportion of live births resulting from these pregnancies has decreased relative to the proportion of teenagers receiving abortions.


Buske L. Teen pregnancy rate down, abortion rate up. Can Med Assoc J. 2001;164(3):395.

(News) Will Canada follow US lead on RU486?

Barbara Sibbald

Canadian Medical Association Journal, CMAJ
Canadian Medical Association Journal

Extract
After 17 years of debate, mifepristone (RU 486), the controversial pill that induces early abortion, is for sale in the US. The drug’s Canadian proponents hope this country will soon follow suit. . . . The SOGC passed a resolution in 1992 supporting the “legal availability” of antiprogesterone steroids such as mifepristone in order to give “Canadian women access to treatment of proven efficacy.” Lalonde says withholding approval is an “insult to women — they’re being treated like babies, being refused access to this and that when it comes to their health.” Not everyone is as enthusiastic. Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer for Canada’s Campaign Life Coalition (www.lifesite.net), told CMAJ: “The result of taking this pill is a dead baby, and that’s certainly not a drug we need here.”


Sibbald B. Will Canada follow US lead on RU486?. Can Med Assoc J. 2001 Jan 09;164(1):82.

Limiting Access to Medical Treatment in an Age of Medical Progress: Developing a Catholic Consensus: A Response from Jewish Tradition

Laurie Zoloth

Christian Bioethics
Christian Bioethics

Extract
The efforts of Christian colleagues to articulate a clear framework of specific Christian moral values to assess clinical treatments are a necessary contribution to the debates about justice and resource allocation in health care. Such efforts not only make clear the way in which all such judgement is located, understood and interpreted from a particular social venue and from a particular ethical stance; finding one’s moral location is the first task of critical theory and concomitant practice. The clinical epistemology required in medical resource allocation is framed by cultural and theological stance just as surely as any knowledge, and Christians must be fully responsible for making overt the often covert assumptions that undergird such work. I have been asked to respond to the Consensus Statement by Catholics as a Jewish ethicist.


Zoloth L. Limiting Access to Medical Treatment in an Age of Medical Progress: Developing a Catholic Consensus: A Response from Jewish Tradition. Christ Bioet. 2001 Jan 01;7(2):193-201.