https://doi.org/10.4081/mem.2003.675
The conscience objection of the chemist to the morning-after pill.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Authors
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.
How to Cite
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
An Open Access Publication is one that meets the following two conditions:
- the author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant(s) to all users a free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to, and a license to copy, use, distribute, transmit and display the work publicly and to make and distribute derivative works, in any digital medium for any responsible purpose, subject to proper attribution of authorship, as well as the right to make small numbers of printed copies for their personal use.
- a complete version of the work and all supplemental materials, including a copy of the permission as stated above, in a suitable standard electronic format is deposited immediately upon initial publication in at least one online repository that is supported by an academic institution, scholarly society, government agency, or other well-established organization that seeks to enable open access, unrestricted distribution, interoperability, and long-term archiving.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.