British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life

This Federation wishes to draw the attention of all doctors to the insidious nature of the latest GMC guidelines regarding the indentification of doctors who hold any ethical objections to abortion or any other contentious medical issue.  More and more doctors will now be included in this net.  It will no longer be just the doctors who abide by the Geneva Convention of respecting human life from the moment of conception, but also those who might be unhappy about cremation, infant circumcision or some cosmetic surgery procedures.

Are doctors no longer trusted to give an opinion or to be relied upon to refer ethically debatable issues to colleagues who may have different views?

Many Muslim doctors are now being drawn into this net.  Many G.P.'s are unhappy about being forced to make early abortions available in their surgeries.  Must we all wear our ethical labels on our lapels or like David Copperfield's unjustified placard "Take care of him - he bites"?  We now have the additional threat from the GMC that "serious or persistant failutre to follow this guidance will put medical registration at risk".  In Nazi Germany, Jews were forbidden to practise; are we at risk of raising new and more subtle barriers to medical practice in this country?

Elspeth Chowdharay Best