The conflict between ethics, directives and laws for health care workers has become an increasingly fraught issue. A conference this weekend looks at how to respond to rising intolerance of faith and ethics. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Health care workers and students concerned about the encroachment of the law on key life issues, including euthanasia and abortion, will gather to hear how they can practice according to their consciences.
Solidarity, an annual conference, features leading Catholic bioethicist Bernadette Tobin, director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics at St Vincent’s Hospital; Anna Walsh, lecturer in the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame; and Damien Tudehope, leader of the New South Wales Government in the upper house.
“Solidarity as men and women of conscience will be advanced by this conference and I look forward to being a part of it,” Mr Tudehope said.
“If we are pressured to do unjust acts, we need the virtue of fortitude to resist the temptation, even at personal or professional cost, and the virtue of prudence to decide how to best to act in challenging circumstances.
“Our consciences oblige us to act in accordance with justice.”
Dr Tobin said that Dr Daniel Sulmasy of Georgetown University was right to point out that the central issue in conscientious objection today was whether the legalisation of controversial medical practices, such as abortion and euthanasia, entailed a moral duty for doctors to perform such procedures if requested by patients.
Solidarity will be held on Saturday, November 5, from 1:30-5:30pm at Warrane College, UNSW. Bookings can be made at: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/422220822847
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Conscientious objection conference for health care workers (By Adam Wesselinoff, The Catholic Weekly)
