Melbourne based pro life group, Doctors in Conscience conducted a conference on Saturday July 25, addressing the impact of the Victorian abortion legislation upon the traditional right of medical workers to object to undertaking certain medical procedures.
The conference examined the implications that anticonscience laws (such as abortion legislation) will have on the practice of healthcare for conscientious objectors. It also examined the broader issue of anti-conscience laws and the threat they pose to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion from a cultural, political and legal perspective.
According to the conference brochure, “The recent Victorian Abortion Law Reform legislation enacted in October 2008, ushered in a new era of healthcare in Australia in which individual health workers and healthcare organizations can be coerced to act contrary to their consciences and their deeply held ethical, moral and religious convictions, by requiring the compulsory participation in abortion through referral and, in some circumstances, direct assistance.”
Dr Lachlan Dunjey, convenor of Medicine with Morality, spoke at the conference. According to Dr Dunjey, ‘compassion’ is the most common reason given by doctors as to why abortions should be performed. He counters: ‘compassion must be aligned with love and not pity. Genuine compassion will look to the future holistic welfare of the person or persons concerned and therefore in conscience respectfully saying no to the requested procedure and seeking instead to give a more informed picture’.
The Victorian Abortion Law Reform legislation requires medical practitioners with a conscientious objection to abortion to refer a woman seeking one to another practitioner who doesdn’t have that objection.
For more information, check out the article in The Age.
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