TY - JOUR AU - Talavera Fernández, Pedro A. AU - Bellver Capella, Vicente PY - 2003/02/28 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - The conscience objection of the chemist to the morning-after pill. JF - Medicina e Morale JA - MedMoral VL - 52 IS - 1 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.4081/mem.2003.675 UR - https://www.medicinaemorale.it/mem/article/view/675 SP - 111-133 AB - The article represents a taking of position regarding the matter of the conscience objection towards the "morning-after pill" (MAP).The MAP is considered like an emergency contraception that the woman can take within the 72 hours from the sexual intercourse. The mechanisms of action of the product can be the following: a. to avoid the ovulation; b. to prevent the fusion between oocyte and sperm after the ovulation; c. to make impossible the implant of the embryo in the uterus.The author questions in the article if the MAP is abortive and, in this case, explicits the fundamental points of the Spanish law about the conscience objection.It is not difficult to ascertain that the MAP acts as contraceptive when it prevents the ovulation or the fusion of the gametes, but it is an abortifacient when it prevents the implant of the embryo in the uterus.The World Health Organization affirms that the pregnancy begins with the implant of the zygote in the uterus and it could seem that it is not possible to speak of abortion before the implant because there is not a pregnancy. Really, the individual human life begins with the union of the oocyte with the sperm and not in the implant of the embryo in uterus.The conscience objection represents a kind of disobedience to a law, motivated from ethical reasons, such to elude the sanction foreseen by its breach. If the chemist, practising a sanitary profession, considers the MAP an abortifacient, he has the whole right to make conscience objection and the law should guarantee him such a right. ER -