Ethical Considerations
2/8/2012
Ethical considerations for providing emergency contraception’s to rape victims requires all hospitals to provide information and access to emergency contraceptive to victims of sexual assault. Plan B, an oral synthetic hormone, is the most common type of emergency contraception and is often called the “morning after pill.”
Supporters of the legisla¬tion argue that emergency contraception is a medically accepted way of preventing preg¬nancy and does not represent an abortion. A group specifically formed to make sure access to emergency contraception for rape, incest, and domestic violence victims, state that vic¬tims of sexual assault should have access to the best available treatment. Proponents stressed the importance of giving victims of sexual assault medically and factually accurate and unbiased information and the choice to prevent an unintended pregnancy. Even though the American Medical Association’s medically accepted standard of care includes administering emer¬gency contraception, only some hospitals unconditionally provide emergency contraception to rape victims. Access to emergency contraception has been a heavily debated issue because there has to be a balance between protecting health care provider’s religious and moral beliefs on one hand, and providing a uniform standard of care and maintaining patient rights on the other. This principle constitutes an important approach to the analysis of ethical questions arising from the general obligation to preserve human life and the limits of that obligation. Among other questions, the principle addresses whether the forgoing of life-sustaining treatment constitutes a euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide in certain circumstances and it guides individuals and surrogate decision-makers in the weighing of benefits and burdens.
If I were a judge in the Brownfield v. Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital case, I would have agreed with
References: Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1447633/ Retrieved from http://catholicinsight.com/online/bioethics/mornpill.shtml Retrieved from http://www.linacre.org/MornAftPillMcC.htm Retrieved from http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/reluctant_compliance/