{"id":282238,"date":"2022-12-27T13:30:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-27T19:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=282238"},"modified":"2022-12-27T10:12:11","modified_gmt":"2022-12-27T16:12:11","slug":"world-medical-association-referrals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/world-medical-association-referrals\/","title":{"rendered":"World Medical Association votes to protect conscientious objection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The World Medical Association (WMA) has voted to protect conscientious objection for medical personnel concerning assisted suicide and euthanasia by excluding a provision that would mandate “effective referral” in its\u00a0International Code of Medical Ethics<\/a>.\u00a0The WMA’s policies currently\u00a0state<\/a>, \u201cNo physician should be forced to participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide, nor should any physician be obliged to make referral decisions to this end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Principled conscientious objection for healthcare workers has been facing threats around the world, as some bioethicists have come out against doctors’ ability to refuse to participate in euthanasia or abortion for ethical reasons. In medicine, an \u201ceffective referral\u201d has been defined<\/a> as \u201ctaking positive action to ensure the patient is connected to a non-objecting, available, and accessible physician, other health-care professional, or agency” — a controversial practice when combined with issues like abortion and euthanasia. It requires<\/em> physicians to make a referral to another provider who will commit these acts and thus leads the original physician to feel complicit with assisted suicide or abortion. Doctors have a strong tradition of respecting each other’s \u201cconscientious objections.”<\/p>\n

The final unanimous vote<\/a>\u00a0of the revised code of ethics by physician leaders from almost 60 national medical associations came after a years-long process that involved several regional conferences and multiple public discussions. American doctor Daniel P. Sulmasy made a passionate and persuasive appeal to remove the introduced provision at a July 2022 WMA\u00a0meeting<\/a> in Jakarta, Indonesia. Dr. Sulmasy emphasized in a 2019 Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) article<\/a> that \u201csafeguards\u201d built into the laws are now considered \u201cbarriers\u201d by some, that slippery slopes toward abuse exist, and that there are too many unknown factors with the risks being too high. He has also emphasized that \u201cthe medical literature is, in general, favorably disposed toward the empirical and the new\u201d and therefore creates a bias in favor of assisted suicide and euthanasia.<\/p>\n

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The penultimate debate<\/a> was held in Washington, D.C. this past August, where even more physicians objected<\/a> to forced complicity, and the provision was successfully removed<\/a>. The final approval<\/a> of the code was held at WMA\u2019s annual General Assembly meeting<\/a> in Berlin, Germany in October 2022.<\/p>\n

In addition,\u00a0an open letter<\/a>\u00a0from the UK\u2019s Anscombe Bioethics Centre signed by over 100 doctors and medical ethicists stated, “We the undersigned hold that to fulfil their professional duties to patients, to uphold the integrity of the medical profession, and to avoid harm to society as a whole, physicians must commit themselves to acting ethically in the practice of medicine and must always refrain from actions that they judge to be unethical. The duty of a physician to practise with conscience includes the duty not to act contrary to conscience.”<\/p>\n

The outcome of this ethics vote may be seen as a rebuke to Canada\u2019s system of assisted suicide and euthanasia, known as Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD). Under most circumstances, doctors in Canada are required<\/a> to make an \u201ceffective referral\u201d for euthanasia and assisted suicide<\/a>. It has been an extremely contentious<\/a> policy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The World Medical Association (WMA) has voted to protect conscientious objection for medical personnel concerning assisted suicide and euthanasia by excluding a provision that would mandate “effective referral” in its\u00a0International Code of Medical Ethics.\u00a0The WMA’s policies currently\u00a0state, \u201cNo physician should be forced to participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide, nor should any physician be obliged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":887,"featured_media":193656,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[15,3473],"tags":[19,13062,154,1930,19698,498,791,18678,19699,10289,17492,889,10920],"yoast_head":"\nWorld Medical Association votes to protect conscientious objection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The World Medical Association has voted to reject forced referrals, in which doctors are required to make referrals for things like abortion.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/world-medical-association-referrals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"World Medical Association votes to protect conscientious objection\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The World Medical Association has voted to reject forced referrals, in which doctors are required to make referrals for things like abortion.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/world-medical-association-referrals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-27T19:30:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-27T16:12:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/doctors-surgery.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Leslie Wolfgang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Leslie Wolfgang\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/world-medical-association-referrals\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/world-medical-association-referrals\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Leslie Wolfgang\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/e83c4a427fe04ebfbf134ffa5ee6bb63\"},\"headline\":\"World Medical Association votes to protect conscientious objection\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-27T19:30:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-27T16:12:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/world-medical-association-referrals\/\"},\"wordCount\":537,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"abortion\",\"Berlin\",\"Canada\",\"D.C\",\"Daniel P. 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