Research: what makes doctors do abortions?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The manifestation of conscience in medical practice is usually defined as the refusal to provide controversial services, for example, such as abortion.
But in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists from the University of Michigan dispute this definition and say that doctors who interrupt pregnancy can be called conscientious and conscious.
Lisa Harris, MD, associate professor of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan emphasizes that there are historical and modern evidence that it is conscience and consciousness that are the main motivators that make doctors do abortions.
The doctor refers to the sociological research of Carol Joffe, who was studying what pushes qualified medical professionals to conduct abortions illegally, at the same time risking not only the loss of a medical license and their many years of medical practice, but also their own freedom. The sociological research was based on the so-called case of Rowe v. Wade - the historic decision of the US Supreme Court regarding the legality of abortion. This decision has become one of the most controversial and politically important in the history of the States.
The court decided that the woman has the right to abortion until the fetus in her womb becomes viable - in this context - it means autonomy, "the ability to exist outside the mother's body, including with obligate medical support" .
"The doctors did clandestine abortions because they saw how women die who try to get rid of unwanted pregnancy on their own or entrust themselves to charlatans," Harris writes.
The doctor says that modern abortions are motivated by the consciousness of doctors: "Although in the modern world gynecologists who do abortions do not violate the law, they still have something to lose. Many people perceive them as murderers, making them feel this shameful stigma. Censure by colleagues, persecution and threats - that's what the doctors have to endure, which save thousands of women from imminent death. But their entrenched beliefs do not allow us to act differently and just watch the lives of people being crippled. "
The author of the study says that American legislation still protects those doctors who refuse to conduct abortions on the basis of their own moral principles, whereas physicians who conduct abortions are also practically deprived of their ethical views of such protection.
Dr. Harris notes that the opponents of abortion are confident that doctors who are making abortions are guided not primarily by their own conscience, but by material benefits. She does not agree with this statement, but does not deny that it is really important to distinguish the moral motivation of doctors from any others.
"It is important that if you refuse to perform abortion, you take into account the actual motivation, conditioned by moral beliefs, and not the political background that motivates the doctor or the erroneous perception of medical evidence, as well as a combination of other factors that are irrelevant," the author writes.
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