Adoption agencies : comments [Matthew's Journal]

I don't think it's right that doctors are allowed to refuse to perform abortions on the basis of conscience

I quite agree. Similarly I don't think the pharmaceutical freedom described here is acceptable:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/x-ray/allarticles/stories/5p07_emergencycontraception.shtml

If people are allowed to opt out of laws or parts of their job because of personal beliefs, would it be reasonable for me to take a job as a shop assistant and refuse to sell anyone meat products?

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would it be reasonable for me to take a job as a shop assistant and refuse to sell anyone meat products?
It'd depend on the shop. If you'd got a job in a butcher's shop and then raised objections to the presence of meat, you wouldn't deserve much sympathy. If you worked in a large department store where the vile meat was only a small (and some might say incongruous) part of the business, and your views had been made clear before you accepted the job, I'd support your requesting not to be expected to serve on the meat counter.

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Honestly, I think there's a bit of classism involved in giving doctors this abortion exemption. Because there is no equivalent for 'lower-class' jobs and professions. As you say, you can't refuse to sell meat if you're a vegetarian, you're just told to sod off and get yourself another job. I'm not even sure that you can refuse to assist at an abortion if you're a nurse. If you work at a factory manufacturing the chemical abortion pills, I bet you can't refuse to do your bit there. Etc.

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refuse to assist at an abortion if you're a nurse

You don't have to get a job at an abortion clinic...

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But neither does the doctor.

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The rules about refering patients are not for abortionists (would you *really* qualify as an abortionist, get a job doing it and then refuse to do any?) but for GPs. The normal route to getting an abortion entails getting you GP to refer you to the abortionist, because you need two signatures. GPs are not required to sign your form but they are required to tell you who you should contact now.

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The only people who have this sort of conscience clause are doctors, though. They aren't told to sod off and find something else to do that doesn't require signing an abortion form (plenty of specialisms available where they'd never have to do it). If you work in a factory that manufactures a number of pills, including the chemical abortion one, I bet you'd not be able to request not to be involved in the manufacture of that one. I think that's classist. Doctors (and sometime pharmacists) are allowed to have this sort of principled objection where lower class workers aren't.

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I tend to agree.

I personally think it's a stupid law. I think people shouldn't be allowed to impede my desire to have an abortion atall, in any way... so I'm not really interested in making it a less classist law... After all I don't go arround stopping people from having babies that they want to have!

I think the actual reasoning was that too few doctors want to be GPs, so they had to take away one of the potentially undesirable parts of being a GP to make more people be GPs. I don't think they have a lack of factory workers.

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I'm sure that is the reasoning but I don't really like it. As far as I'm concerned, people should have freedom of conscience. But that means the freedom not to take jobs that conflict with their consciences, not the freedom to take them and then not fulfil their responsibilities. I don't eat meat but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't sell it if I took a job that required that.

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