A European Union advisory panel has issued a statement saying that medical professionals are not allowed to refuse to participate in abortions. According to the EU Network of Independent Experts on Fundamental Rights doctors should be forced to perform abortions, even if they have conscientious objections, because the right to abort a child is an “international human right.”
[...]
The Network states that agreements which guarantee Catholic doctors and nurses a right not to be involved in abortions violate EU law. Leftist groups have complained that some new EU members – namely Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia – are so overwhelmingly Catholic that far too few doctors are willing to perform abortions. This makes it hard for women who want an abortion to find a doctor who has no conscientious objection. In such cases, the EU experts say, doctors should be forced to abort:
“Indeed, the right to religious conscientious objection may conflict with other rights, also recognized under international law. In such circumstances, an adequate balance must be struck between these conflicting requirements, which may not lead to one right being sacrificed to another.”
Translation: One right must be sacrificed to the other, and the one to be sacrificed is the right to exercise of religion. Unless, of course, religion isn't a right but a privilege.
I think that's the crux of the matter. Religion in and of itself is apparently seen as being morally neutral in Europe these days. It's kind of quaint, like putting out milk for the fairies on St. John's Eve. But when it interferes with the will of the non-religious, it's morally impermissible. Religious customs are all right; religious principles are verboten.
A/T to Amy Welborn.
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