Portugal lá fora

Portuguese Government Orders Doctors to Remove Anti-Abortion Restrictions from Code of Ethics

Portuguese Bar Association denounces decision as "arrogant and overbearing"

PORTUGAL, October 18, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Portuguese Health Minister has ordered the Portuguese Medical Association to eliminate its ethical prohibition on performing abortions, sparking protests from physicians and legal experts.Minister Antonio Correia de Campos, a socialist, is basing his directive on the fact that Portugal recently decriminalized all abortions during the twelve weeks of pregnancy. With the support of Portugal's attorney general, he has declared that the Medical Association's code conflicts with the new law, and has given them thirty days to eliminate the restriction.The Association's current ethical code states that "doctors must maintain respect for human life from its beginning", and "the practice of abortion constitutes a grave ethical failure". The decision appears to follow a recent strategy used by the abortion lobby and pro-abortion politicians in Latin America, which equates decriminalization of abortion with a legal "right" to an abortion. Although criminal penalties have been eliminated from the Portuguese legal code, the Constitution of Portugal still states that "human life shall be inviolable" and "the death penalty shall not exist under any circumstances." The decision to force the changes drew a sharp denunciation from Daniel Serrao, a doctor who previously headed the Ethical Commission of the Portuguese Medical Association, who stated that "any type of interference is completely unacceptable, from whomever it comes outside of the profession, regarding the way that doctors think they should relate to each other." The Portuguese Bar Association also issued a statement denouncing the decision as "arrogant and overbearing".