A Polish doctor -- who refused a woman's request for an abortion procedure because of a "conflict of conscience" with his Roman Catholic beliefs -- has been fired from the hospital he works at, the Christian Post website reports today (July 11, 2014).
The case -- which sparked a nationwide abortion debate and prompted Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk to tell Warsaw obstetrician Bogdan Chazan that he must choose the law over his faith -- began in April when the doctor refused a pregnant woman an abortion at Warsaw's Holy Family Hospital.
The woman had come to Chazan to ask for an abortion because her own physician had diagnosed her unborn child with grave health problems. The obstetrician, however, told the woman that he could not agree to such an abortion in his hospital, and referred the woman to a hospice where the child could get palliative care once born.
Abortion is legal only in certain cases in Poland, such as when the mother's life is in grave danger and before 25 weeks of pregnancy; if the fetus is known to have severe birth defects, or if the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. The child at the center of the debate was later born at a different hospital, but with severe head and facial deformities and a brain that was not viable.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment