SCMA Spring Meeting 2015, Healthcare Workers & Positions of Conscience

We were delighted to welcome Senior Labour Ward Midwife Mary Doogan as our speaker on the important topic of Positions of Conscience and healthcare workers. It became clear through Mary’s talk and the experiences of different attendees, that positions of conscience are both common and important for healthcare workers. They are issues of significance both at particular times in an individual’s careers and through daily decisions, encounters and situations which demand thought, sacrifice and often a supernatural outlook. Many in the group took the opportunity to discuss difficulties which they themselves have faced in their own work lives and we were encouraged by Mary who together with another Senior midwife from the Southern General Hospital took their case for conscience rights to the UK Supreme Court.  There was a clear need for mutual support through this meeting and SCMA will look to take this forward in the future both locally and with larger Catholic healthcare groups.