Corby, Paschal M Following acts to legalise forms of assisted dying in other countries, the Australian state of Victoria is poised to do the same. In June last year, the Legal and Social Issues Committee of the Parliament of Victoria tabled the report resulting from its inquiry into end of life choices, which recommends the passing of laws that would make it legal for a terminally ill patient at the end of his or her life to ask a doctor to (...) help him or her die. This proposal is currently before a ministerial advisory panel consisting of clinical, legal, health administration and palliative care experts, with the task of drafting a bill to be presented in parliament sometime later this year, to be decided by a conscience vote of its members. (shrink)

In the debate about heterologous embryo transfer (HET), or embryo adoption, within marriage, discussion to date has proceeded predominantly from the perspective of the acting woman, with less attention paid to the effects on her spouse. In directing the focus of this paper to the man’s experience, the author is confirmed in his opinion that HET is contrary to the man’s dignity as husband and father. It is an infidelity to the exclusive union of his marriage, an affront to the (...) husband’s right to be the means by whom his wife becomes a mother, and a sacrilege to the sacrament by which his fatherhood is called to be an expression of God’s creative love. National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly 13.2 (Summer 2013): 287–297. (shrink)

In response to a growing movement opposed to conscientious objection in medicine, the medical profession should resist the privatization of conscience in general and accept the challenge, presented by conscientious objection, of rethinking its practices and being true to its calling. These claims are informed by the traditional understanding of conscience and the thought of Jürgen Habermas on the relevance of religious truths in public debate and the legitimacy of public dissent.