British doctors who refuse to carry out sex-change surgery may be barred from practice

May 29, 2012

British physicians who refuse to prescribe birth control to unmarried women or who refuse to carry out “gender reassignment” surgery would be guilty of discrimination and thus could be barred from practice under guidelines drafted by the General Medical Council.

Auxiliary Bishop Tom Williams of Liverpool, chairman of the Bishops' Conference Healthcare Reference Group, lamented the draft guidelines and urged doctors and patients alike to make their voices heard.

“Both religion and conscientious objection seem to be treated as problems to be minimized and circumscribed as much as possible,” he said. “An atmosphere of fear in which doctors are prohibited from ever expressing their own religion, or, at the other extreme are required to advertise in advance that they have certain beliefs, would directly discriminate against certain categories of doctor and indirectly discriminate against patients who may be deprived of a healthcare professional from their community who understands their concerns.”

 

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Further information:

• Doctors could be banned from practising for refusing to give unmarried women contraceptives (The Telegraph)
• Healthcare Workers Urged to Respond to Consultation on Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice (Catholic Church in England and Wales)