WCR Letters to the Editor

Health care workers must have freedom of conscience

I am a newly retired Christian nurse who has enjoyed 45 years of nursing service. Twenty-three of those years were spent in British Columbia and the past 22 years were spent here in the Edmonton area.

Throughout my nursing experience, I have carried the certainty that I have the right as a professional woman to refuse my services in the areas that offend my conscience. I have always known too that this right is shared by any member of the health care team who has access to the patient's diagnosis.

During this period of 45 years it was necessary for me to voice this right only twice.

Once I was assigned a patient in an acute care public hospital who was to be prepared for a surgical abortion. My head nurse accepted my objection and merely assigned me to other patients.

The second situation was a new position in a rural clinic as the only nurse. After the first week on duty I was aware that the five doctors who shared the clinic routinely performed the insertion of IUDs and the minor surgery called vasectomy in their small clinical operating room.

When I voiced my objection to assisting for these procedures, these gentlemen sat down with me to discuss a workable solution. None of them shared my religious orientation.

In both of these situations I was fully aware of the rights of these patients to their choices and of the need for my discretion in their presence. I had been schooled this way at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver.

It distresses me greatly to think that these rights of conscience which have been part of our Christian heritage since the founding of North America are being challenged. Wasn't it Andrew Jackson who said in essence, and I paraphrase, I may not share your beliefs but I will defend to the death your right to believe them. It seems Safeway has forgotten its roots.

Health care professionals have the responsibility as men and women of science to provide the truth to their patients as best they know it. Human beings are able to give others their best service only when they themselves are given the freedom to provide their best. This is one of the truths that our whole North American culture is based upon.

Irene Landauer
Edmonton

Beware the enemy of self-righteousness

The letter - written in response to a controversial column by Charles Moore - supported that author's suggestion that openness to other denominations or religions lends them a false validity that only serves to weaken our own faith.

I have only belonged to the Church for a few years but if I felt such thinking was representative of Catholicism, I would undoubtedly feel obligated to reassess my own compatibility. Fortunately, I need look no further than the example set by Pope John Paul to witness the true course of the Church.

In reaching out to Jewish and Islamic leaders during his recent pilgrimages to the Middle East, and to other Christian leaders when marking the new millennium, our pope has elevated the standard of dialogue and understanding raised by the Second Vatican Council.

The only true "enemies" the Church should be wary of are the pride and self-righteousness that would rebuild the walls of division being eroded by such gestures.

It would seem to me that those Catholics who warn against the "syncretism" of dialoguing with other faiths or denominations are subtly questioning the leadership of their own Church.

Grant Thoreson
Wainwright

No more name-calling

As to Charles Moore's commentary on Elian ("The sacrifice of Elian Gonzalez"), it seems the WCR is permitting something of a downgrading. Most columnists appear to express their opinions based on the issues.

With his statement, "one usually-reliable compass I've applied is factoring in rhetoric from liberals and leftists on this issue. Since those people can usually be counted on to be dead wrong about nearly everything controversial . . ." we are transported to the realm of name calling, bullying and labelling which we get ad nauseam in the secular press.

Keep the name-calling for some other forum, please.

C. Weckend
Fort McMurray

Kudos for farmer who helps animals

Way to go, Colin! I am an animal advocate and vegan who would prefer that animals not be used as products for human consumption.

But recognizing that my view is not widely held, I hope at least that other farmers will follow Colin's example and that those who insist on eating animal flesh will support farmers like Colin who have compassion for their animals.

Lynda Downie
Edmonton

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