Brandon Scott
Speaking in advance of the Catholic Medical Association of Ireland’s 7th annual conference this Saturday, President of the association, Dr Keith Holmes, has described the current treatment of Catholic healthcare professionals who are forced to deal with a radically different end-of-life culture, as a “shocking affront” to the principle of conscientious objection and has caused worries within the medical profession.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Dr Holmes said that “the whole issue of end-of-life issues, including suicide and euthanasia, has really called into question the role of the doctor; whether a doctor is to uphold and support life. It really is that critical and it’s hard to put it more bluntly than that”.
“Most doctors of my acquaintance are very worried about these developments but the biggest worry is that it gets a foothold at all. Once these things get a toehold and once the exception is established as being acceptable then what you find is that the whole argument becomes distorted, the language becomes distorted, the word compassion becomes weaponised and suddenly the slippery slope starts again.”
Dr Holmes believes that governments dishonouring their promises has led to an abrupt shift in some of the aims in modern healthcare, particularly after the repeal of the 8th Amendment, and now that this continues to repeatedly happen, the “floodgates open” to all sorts of disturbing possibilities in the future.
“Even when the repeal of the 8th Amendment happened, abortion was meant to be something that was in exceptional circumstances and now with the recent review of it the criticism of it is that it’s not more widely available more quickly,” Dr Holmes said. “So clearly what may start as a founding premise very quickly becomes pushed aside and the floodgates open.”
The principle of conscientious objection must be fundamental at all times in a line-of-work as sensitive as the medical profession, but the conditional approach to the principle “flies in the face of what proper conscientious objection is”, according to Dr Holmes.
“I think with regard to abortion, the issue of conscientious objection, it’s very clear the direction things are going,” Dr Holmes said. “People are allowed to conscientiously object as long as they organise for the procedure to be carried out elsewhere, which of course absolutely flies in the face of what proper conscientious objection is. Our fear is that the same line of undermining will continue – particularly with euthanasia and assisted suicide if it becomes law.
“Conscientious objection will merely mean that you’re left with the responsibility to arrange even though technically you don’t get your own hands dirty and that’s just a shocking affront to conscientious objection.”The 7th Annual Conference will take place September 21at the St Charles Centre, Mount Argus, Harolds Cross, Dublin 6W.Register online: www.icdln.ie.
Read the full analysis piece by Brandon Scott here.