Friday, May 25, 2012

Bishop urges Christian medics to register value of their beliefs

The Church is urging Catholic doctors to take part in a consultation on the extent to which medics' personal beliefs should be allowed to influence their decision-making at work.

Doctors have until 13 June to respond to the consultation on "Personal Beliefs and Medical Practice" by the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors in the UK.

Bishop Tom Williams, chairman of the bishops' conference healthcare reference group, said that the GMC's current guidelines did not factor in the importance of "requiring, and hence permitting, doctors to make conscientious ethical decisions".

He added that forbidding doctors from ever expressing their own religion "would directly discriminate against certain categories of doctor and indirectly discriminate against patients."