Ok I’ve found a good thing. We shouldn’t need it, but since we do, it’s a good thing that it exists. The Secular Medical Forum.
The Secular Medical Forum campaigns for a secular approach to current major health issues.
We are opposed to religious influences in Medicine where these affect the manner in which medical practice is performed. We campaign to protect patients from the harm caused by the imposition of religious values and activities on people who do not share the same values and beliefs.
The SMF directs itself to the improvement of the human condition. SMF members do not recognise the assumed authority of religious bodies and we challenge their traditional privileges in healthcare service provision or decision-making.
It commented on the death of Savita Halappanavar.
The Secular Medical Forum believes that this death could have been prevented if Ireland’s law on abortion focused upon the need of vulnerable patients, rather than upon Catholic doctrine. The SMF believes that healthcare should be provided free from the intrusion of religion. Bioethics is hindered, not helped, by relying upon religious sentiments.
The SMF is aware that women around the world suffer due to the imposition of religious beliefs which takes away their autonomy over their own bodies. If this case had occurred in the United Kingdom, it would have been legal for Mrs Halappanavar to have a safe abortion. However in the UK there is the continual threat to abortion rights by religious groups who wish to inflict their particular beliefs upon other people. The SMF defends the right of religious people to hold their beliefs; however, patients must remain free from unwelcome religious interference.
The SMF hopes that Ireland’s abortion laws are reformed so that this tragedy is not repeated.
I wonder if the US has an equivalent organization. It certainly needs one.