RESUMO
National and international courts and tribunals are increasingly ruling that although states may aim to deter unlawful abortion by criminal penalties, they bear a parallel duty to inform physicians and patients of when abortion is lawful. The fear is that women are unjustly denied safe medical procedures to which they are legally entitled, because without such information physicians are deterred from involvement. With particular attention to the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee, the Constitutional Court of Colombia, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, and the US Supreme Court, decisions are explained that show the responsibility of states to make rights to legal abortion transparent. Litigants are persuading judges to apply rights to reproductive health and human rights to require states' explanations of when abortion is lawful, and governments are increasingly inspired to publicize regulations or guidelines on when abortion will attract neither police nor prosecutors' scrutiny.
Assuntos
Aborto Legal/legislação & jurisprudência , Direitos da Mulher/legislação & jurisprudência , Colômbia , Europa (Continente) , Feminino , Governo , Humanos , Cooperação Internacional , Irlanda do Norte , Peru , Justiça Social/legislação & jurisprudência , Responsabilidade Social , Estados UnidosRESUMO
Emergency contraception (EC), an intervention within 72 h of unprotected intercourse, dates back approximately 30 years, to the Yuzpe method. Recent development of a second generation of 'morning after,' better called 'emergency' contraceptives, has raised claims that they are abortifacient. These claims are largely rejected in medical, legal and much religious reasoning. Pregnancy is usually ascribed to the postimplantation period; means to prevent completion of implantation do not terminate pregnancy. An alternative attack on EC has arisen under South American laws that protect human life 'from conception.' The chance of conception from a single act of unprotected intercourse is very low, in view of limited times of fertility during menstrual cycles. The protection of a woman's life is not suspended during pregnancy. Risks to women's interests are more credible than the chance of conception having occurred. The claim to prohibit EC to protect embryonic life from conception is therefore problematic.
Assuntos
Anticoncepcionais Pós-Coito , Serviços Médicos de Emergência/legislação & jurisprudência , Ética Médica , Desenvolvimento Embrionário , Feminino , Fertilização , Humanos , Gravidez , Religião , África do Sul , América do Sul , Saúde da MulherRESUMO
Amparada por sus derechos a la libertad de pensamiento y de conciencia en en ejercicio de su autonomía reproductiva es la mujer a quien corresponde en su fuero interno decidir si evita o no un embarazo, acudiendo por ejemplo a la anticoncepción de emergencia
Assuntos
Colômbia , Anticoncepcionais Pós-Coito , Legislação como AssuntoRESUMO
Ethical principles that require the preservation of patients' confidential information are reinforced by principles found in several areas of law, such as law on contracts, negligence, defamation and fiduciary duty. However, laws sometimes compel disclosures of medical confidences, and more often may justify or excuse disclosures. Legally contentious issues concern patients' confidences regarding possible unlawful conduct, such as pregnancy termination, and the risk of spread of HIV and other infections. This article reviews the various legal bases of the duty of confidentiality, and legal challenges to the ethical obligation of non-disclosure. It addresses the justifications and limits of exchange of patients' health information among healthcare professionals and trainees, and considers legally recognized limits of confidential duties, and the scope of legitimate disclosure. An underlying theme is how to determine whether physicians are ethically justified in employing the discretion the law sometimes affords them to breach patients' expectations of confidentiality.
Assuntos
Confidencialidade/legislação & jurisprudência , Ética Médica , Relações Médico-Paciente , Medicina Reprodutiva/legislação & jurisprudência , Argentina , Canadá , Feminino , Humanos , Gravidez , Estados UnidosRESUMO
PIP: This work examines reproductive health within the framework of human rights assured by various international conventions, and analyzes the high maternal mortality rates of developing countries as a violation of several guaranteed rights. The 1st of 3 main sections of the report discusses the failure of governments to make protection of women's reproductive health a priority. Historically, women's principal role has been to bear children, and no recognition was given to the cost in health of accomplishing this duty. Women's reproductive health has created controversies in many traditional juridical systems because of its relation to human sexuality and morals. WHO has estimated that some 500,000 maternal deaths occur each year, with 25-50% resulting from unsafe abortions. The causes of maternal mortality often have their roots in the poor nutrition or inadequate health care provided to the woman long before the 1st pregnancy. Early and frequent pregnancies and heavy physical labor are among the many factors that contribute to maternal death. Laws to protect women's health may be lacking or may not be applied. For example, many countries have no legal minimum age for marriage. To combat the traditional negligence, a new viewpoint is emerging which views women's reproductive health as a condition in which childbearing occurs in a state of physical, mental, and social wellbeing. It implies that women have the capacity to reproduce, regulate their fertility, and enjoy sexual relations. Laws that deny access to reproductive health services or place obstacles or conditions in the way are coming under question as violations of basic human rights of women protected by international conventions. The main such convention discussed in this article is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, although several other conventions are relevant to protecting women's reproductive health. If international law on human rights is to become truly universal, it is necessary to require that nations take preventive and curative measures to protect women's reproductive health and provide women with the capacity for reproductive self-determination. International human rights treaties require that national and international laws guarantee the rights of women to be free from discrimination; enjoy the rights to marriage and formation of a family; rights to private and family life; rights to information and education; and access to medical attention and to the benefits of scientific progress. The 2nd major section of this work discusses interpretations of these treaties using empirical evidence and feminist juridical principles. The 3rd section discusses international protection of women's reproductive rights, including the reporting system and specific categories of clearly differentiable rights.^ieng
Assuntos
Causas de Morte , Países em Desenvolvimento , Estudos de Avaliação como Assunto , Direitos Humanos , Mortalidade Materna , Mortalidade , Filosofia , Medicina Reprodutiva , Direitos da Mulher , Demografia , Economia , Saúde , População , Dinâmica Populacional , Fatores SocioeconômicosRESUMO
PIP: Human rights vary from those which are socially or politically obligatory to those which are legally obligatory for nations. Human rights which establish a political obligation on nations are generally found in declarations, proclamations, or resolutions. Legally obligatory human rights are found in national constitutions and properly ratified treaties, conventions, pacts, and letters. Legally backed human rights may also be found in sources that don't imply treaties, such as fundamental principles of law. The Proclamation on Human Rights in 1968, the Declaration on Progress and Social Development in 1969, and the World Population Plan of Action of 1974 began to establish international norms for reproductive decision making are not legally obligatory as such in these documents but are socially and politically persuasive. The legal right to family planning is not directly specified in the majority of legally backed national, regional, and international instruments, but may be derived from basic human rights included in agreements which establish legal obligations. Much can be done to make the right to family planning legally obligatory through itsincorporation into other more basic human rights that are legally backed. An instrument with legal backing is one in which some kind of remedy is provided in case of violation. National constitutions, which have legal backing, should be carefully considered in developing a strategy for legal promotion of the right to family planning. International and regional instruments with legal backing impose upon the signatory countries a good faith obligation to abstain from any inconsistent actionm, and treaty which is signed but not ratified may invalidate inconsistent subsequent legislation. A ratified convention or treaty has 3 effects relevant to provision of legal rights to family planning: 1) it defines international legal obligations agreed to by the signatories, 2) it may contain special rules regarding its implementation and execution, and 3) it may occupy a special position in the municipal or national law of the ratifying state. In formulating a strategy for legal promotion of human rights, attention should be given to nations which have significantly violated specific obligations of human rights, to determine whether they have ratified any relevant treaties or agreements, and if so, to invoking the legal remedies.^ieng