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Conscience and conscientious objection: The midwife’s role in abortion services
- Source :
- Nursing Ethics
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Traditionally, the role of midwives has been to be with women throughout the pregnancy continuum, from conception until the end of the postnatal period. Midwives, however, have been named as key providers of abortion services. While freedom of conscience is legally protected within Europe, discrepancies exist between midwifery and conscientious objection to abortion-related services. Midwives are largely ignored within the academic discussion despite the care and support they give to women undergoing abortions. Those discrepancies led to the aim of this article to address this issue by discussing some of the key ethical and legal concepts that are relevant to midwives’ role in the provision of abortion services. This article shows that the decision to provide or object to abortion services remains ethically very complex because arguments exist both for and against its provision. Being with women can be interpreted differently and individual situations of care are multifaceted. Conscientious objection to abortion services is a highly contentious issue that has an overall importance to midwives. Noting that decisions are individual, may change or may be situationally dependant; a definitive position of midwives for or against conscientious objection cannot be assumed. Respecting conscience and acknowledging that there are various arguments for and against conscientious objection promotes widespread understanding. It accommodates both the opportunity for midwives to object on conscience grounds to the provision of abortion services and respect women’s autonomy so that mutual agreement may be reached on issues that may have far reaching consequences.
- Subjects :
- media_common.quotation_subject
Abortion services
conscience
Abortion
0603 philosophy, ethics and religion
RT
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
BJ
Political science
Conscience
midwifery
media_common
030219 obstetrics & reproductive medicine
Conscientious objector
06 humanities and the arts
Issues, ethics and legal aspects
Law
conscientious objection
Original Manuscripts
060301 applied ethics
Dependant
RG
Being with
Autonomy
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14770989 and 09697330
- Volume :
- 27
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nursing Ethics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....778c9ca633fca716c5729af70b3612d8