The Nurse Asked To Assist In An Abortion

3 Pages 740 Words

The Nurse Asked to Assist In An Abortion

A nurse named Betty Perez worked part -time in a small suburban hospital .

Since she was familiar with the hospital’s routines and the staff, she was always

asked by the nursing supervisor to work in those patient care areas short on nursing

staff for that particular shift. One day she was asked to work in the recovery room,

and later on asked to report into A-4 which is the suite of rooms where elective

abortions were usually performed, but Mrs. Perez was a devout Catholic , and she

considered abortion the killing of human life and a mortal sin. And since there was

no one else she had no chance but to agreed with the arrangement as long as the

supervisor would send another nurse to replace her. After preparing the equipment

and the room, she had to look after the doctor’s patient who was 16 years old , un-

married, and was approximately 8 weeks pregnant. She told the doctor that his

patient is ready , but she refused not to participate in the proceedings. The doctor

said, “ Everyone- patient, the fetus, and the community - will be better off not

having to deal with one or more illegitimate child requiring public support. ” And

besides he also claimed that the fetus was just really “ a piece of tissue ” and not

really a human life.

The fact that Mrs. Perez maybe a member of a religious group favoring one

moral rule on abortion and also a member of some other social or professional

group favoring other moral suggest that there must be some limit on this moral

rules. When two different moral rules comes into conflict , she would have to

decide how each is limited in order to resolve the conflict.

Now , sometimes the nurse nay discover limits on certain rules or rights

related to nursing care even when they don’t come into the conflict directly with

other rules or rights. One kind of l...