The Catholic medical practitioner, family planning, and the Church.

نویسنده

William J LeMaire

چکیده

To cite: LeMaire WJ. J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care Published Online First: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/jfprhc-2014101013 BACKGROUND In daily practice, obstetricians and gynaecologists, family practitioners, midwives, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants frequently deal with family planning issues. They commonly advise, prescribe, inject, insert and operate with the aim of preventing or interrupting fertilisation and conception. However, Roman Catholic practitioners are constantly faced with the dilemma between doing the right thing for their patients and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church (‘Church’ for the remainder of this discussion), which opposes any artificial means of family planning and also abortion. Abortion will not be discussed here, as that issue would raise the argument to a different level. The official position of the Church has been and still is that Catholics are not allowed to use any so-called artificial methods to prevent pregnancy. The Church considers the practice of any means of artificial intervention to be a grave sin. Catholic medical practitioners are equally prohibited from prescribing or carrying out such interventions, even though they may realise that doing so might be in the best interest of their patients. In a simplistic way, this dilemma leaves Catholic practitioners with only two possible options: adhering to the teachings of the Church or following their own consciences. Following one’s individual conscience is what the Church teaches anyway.

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

RELIGION, CHURCH, INTIMATE CITIZENSHIP AND GENDER EQUALITY (An Analysis of Differences in Gender Equality Policies in European Catholic Countries)

During the past decades, processes of (post)modernization have raised the importance of quality-of-life issues and related policies, resulting in a higher salience of intimate citizenship issues on the political agenda. The Catholic Church as an institution especially has been articulating strong positions on issues considered to be about personal and family morality, actively opposing liberali...

متن کامل

بررسی تحلیلی دیدگاه شیعه نسبت به شبیه‌سازی

Religious positions on human cloning are pluralistic in modes of argument and conclusions. Some religious thinkers argue that cloning a human is immoral and propose a ban on human cloning. Some other religious thinkers contend that human cloning could be morally justified under some circumstances. The Roman Catholic Church expressed a vigorous opposition to the procedure and a Vatican editor...

متن کامل

281-284 Donovan

Volume 28, Number 6, November/December 1996 volving Church-run institutions. In May 1996, a Catholic health care facility in Troy, New York, agreed, as part of an out-ofcourt settlement, to provide referrals and follow-up for family planning and contraceptive sterilization services. This settlement brought to a close the nation’s first case to challenge the merger of a sectarian and a nonsectar...

متن کامل

Humanae Vitae (1968), by Pope Paul VI

The ?Humanae Vitae,? meaning ?Of Human Life? and subtitled ?On the Regulation of Birth,? was an encyclical promulgated in Rome, Italy, on 25 July 1968 by Pope Paul VI [6]. This encyclical defended and reiterated the Roman Catholic Church?s stance on family planning [7] and reproductive issues such as abortion [8], sterilization [9], and contraception [10]. The document continues to have a contr...

متن کامل