The FRC is reporting, “He may technically be a “lame duck,” but President Bush is going out with guns blazing. With just two months left in office, the administration dealt a crippling blow to online gambling and is prepared to do the same to the pro-abortion movement on conscience exemptions.”

More Information:

Four Christian Medical Association members testified on September 12 before the President’s Council on Bioethics on the issue of conscience rights in healthcare. These testimonies are, to me, very convincing and hopefully will help more and more of us support a healthcare professional’s right to exercise his or her conscience when it comes to deeply-held religious or moral beliefs.

Excerpts below:

Here is a thought-provoking Op-Ed by Admiral Joxel Garcia, MD, the assistant secretary for health with the Department of Health and Human Services, published in The Washington Times.  He begins, “There is no more sacred right than the right of conscience – the right to be guided by one’s own cherished beliefs and morall convictions. In certain professional fields, like health care, questions of conscience are particularly likely to emerge.

More of the editorial:

The National Post is reporting that the regulating body for Ontario physicians has backed off a controversial proposal that would have forced doctors to put aside their religious views when dealing with patients. Protests from the Ontario Medical Association and numerous religious groups appear to have tempered the thinking of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Hopefully the US will do the same.

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There’s an excellent opinion piece in the LA Times titled, “The Fundamental Right to Refuse.” It’s by a ‘pro-choice atheist,’ who articulates that the present battle over conscience rights in healthcare is not only a fight for faith freedoms, but also a fight to preserve some of the most cherished unalienable rights on which western civilization and our republic was founded.

My Take?

LifeSiteNews.com reported that last Friday was marked the deadline for public comment on the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeon’s draft policy that seeks to prohibit medical professionals from obeying their consciences. In light of this, several prominent parties have made concerted efforts to condemn the proposed policy that, if put into effect, will force medical professionals to “set aside their personal beliefs” and take part in grievous anti-life practices.

My Take?

According to a report on CitizenLinke.org, the Supreme Court in California recently heard a case that pitted homosexual rights against religious freedom. At the center of the case was a lesbian who sued two doctors who declined to provide in vitro fertilization (IVF). The doctors were concerned about conducting IVF for someone who would be a single parent. Even though they referred the lesbian to another fertility doctor and offered to pay for any extra cost, the court is likely to rule against the freedom of the doctors to follow their consciences.

My Take?