{"id":12107,"date":"1968-04-06T13:56:00","date_gmt":"1968-04-06T21:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=12107"},"modified":"2023-01-23T15:46:14","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T23:46:14","slug":"editorial-ethics-and-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=12107","title":{"rendered":"(Editorial) Ethics and Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">British Medical Journal<\/h4>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"172\" height=\"230\" src=\"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/bmj.jpg\" alt=\"British Medical Journal, BMJ\" class=\"wp-image-11229\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">British Medical Journal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>Extract<\/strong><br>So the B.M.A., representing most doctors in Britain, had clearly stated its views on the ethics of abortion. Parliament then made it legal for a doctor to terminate pregnancy on wider indications than the B.M.A. thought ethically permissible. Should the Association&#8217;s opinions on ethics be altered to bring them into line with the law? Posed with that question last week the Council decided that they should not (Supplement, p. 3), and the Representative Body is to be asked in June to ratify this decision . . . The principle at issue is fundamental if doctors are to preserve their right to call themselves professional men. A profession sets a standard of conduct for its members, and the essence of professional freedom for a doctor is his right to act in professional matters uninfluenced by any considerations other than the judgement of his fellows. Medical ethics are the collective conscience of the profession, and a plea of &#8221; superior orders &#8221; would be a sinister echo of some- thing that ended 20 years ago at Nuremberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>BMJ. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC1985542\/pdf\/brmedj02078-0019b.pdf\">(Editorial) Ethics and Abortion<\/a>. Br Med J. 1968;2(5596):3. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>British Medical Journal ExtractSo the B.M.A., representing most doctors in Britain, had clearly stated its views on the ethics of abortion. Parliament then made it legal for a doctor to terminate pregnancy on wider indications than the B.M.A. thought ethically permissible. Should the Association&#8217;s opinions on ethics be altered to bring them into line with &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=12107\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;(Editorial) Ethics and Abortion&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,554,881,559,737,1401],"tags":[30],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-12107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-ethics","category-journals-editorials","category-law","category-nuremberg","category-professionalism","tag-british-medical-journal"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>(Editorial) Ethics and Abortion - Protection of Conscience Project Library<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Medical ethics are the collective conscience of the profession. 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