Posted by Michael Wonder on 02 Aug 2019
Toppling the ethical balance — health care refusal and the Trump administration
31 July 2019 - For nearly 50 years, U.S. federal law has permitted medical professionals and religious institutions to refuse, for religious and moral reasons, to provide abortions and sterilisations.
In more recent decades, similar safeguards have been developed for medical professionals who do not wish to comply with patients’ advance directives or deliver physician aid in dying. Under existing statutes, recipients of federal funding — from hospitals and clinics to states and cities — may not discriminate against individuals or organizations that refuse to provide such care.
But health care providers still bear legal and ethical duties to patients. They must provide information about treatment options.
