A Medley of Morals

Perhaps it's an arbitrary notion. Perhaps it's due to working in the public sector for too long. Perhaps it's personal hypersensitivity. Perhaps I'm just crazy, I don't know ... but I've always felt that the concept of human rights, is something that doesn't bode well for me. This is a personal view and not intended as a political remark / opinion in any way. It's just that, I have yet to gain an advantage from that little phrase on any level, personal, or professional. It's almost as if I'm always last in line when so-called human rights are being dished out ... and by the time I get to the front of the cue, there is nothing left.

Any professional knows that personal issues and opinions, have no place at work. You do what you are trained to do, to the best of your ability. But where, and how, does one actually draw the line? What happens when your morals clash with that of your patient? When what you're expected to do goes against everything you believe? When your freedom of choice is forfeited for that of another? When someone else's human rights are considered at the expense of yours?

What then?????

I have a problem with abortions. Having witnessed first-hand, both, the double-edged sword of infertility, as well as the divine grace of adoption, it is something that I personally cannot condone. Especially when it is exploited as a form of contraception! And please, I am not generalizing, and I am not judging. All I am saying is that I want no part in it. Perhaps it's a bit cowardly of me, or hypocritical even, I'm not sure. But something dies inside me everytime I contribute to an elective abortion.

In my opinion, no woman ever gets over it anyway. Every single patient I've ever anaesthetized for this, has woken up crying ... barring one. It's something that I've constantly noticed over the years, without fail, and it never seizes to affect me. The reasons why a woman would choose this specific route escape me, yet I fully understand that the decisions are hers to make. She has the right to chose, and she has to live with the consequences of her choices. But, at least her choices are being considered ...

What about mine?

Don't I have the right to protect myself emotionally? Why do colleagues stare at me as if I'm a two-headed, lazy monster when I decline these cases? More often than not, I get bullied into doing them anyway! My professional position supposedly puts me in the upper ranks of the food chain, but what's the point? Even there, my freedom and my rights are at times controlled by others. Add to that the frustration of not being able to discuss the situation openly with the patient ( I refuse to upset any patient before an induction, plus she is basically the gynae's patient, not mine), and I have to ask: Where is the human rights in that??