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Israeli court rules on right to motherhood
THE LANCET
POLICY AND PEOPLE
French doctors plan mass industrial action
F
rench general practitioners and specialists in private practice will close their offices and strike on Oct 17, in protest at the government’s health policy and saving plans. On the same day, all civil servants’ trade unions, including those representing health services, are to strike and demonstrations will take place throughout the country against the government’s social and economic policies. Three of the four main medical trade unions have decided to join the national strike day since “doctors’ patience is at an end now, because the government has systematically made them the scapegoat for all the financial problems of the health insurance”, says Claude Maffioli, president of the main doctors’ trade union Confédération des Syndicates Médicaux Français. Doctors are against the government’s increasing control and supervision of their work, which they feel is turning the health system into a state-run organisation. They are also afraid that new controls on their prescribing and other professional activities could lead to a substantial loss in income, for doc-
tors are now fined if they prescribe more drugs or make more examinations than their budget allows. On the night of Oct 3, most general practitioners refused to respond to emergency calls or make home visits, in protest at a new regulation that will reduce the time during which they are allowed to charge higher night fees, which is now between 20 00 h and 08 00 h but soon between only 21 00 h and 07 00 h. Doctors say that the amount of money saved by this measure will be only a drop in the ocean, yet, once again, general practitioners will bear the burden of this cost-cutting measure. By joining the strike on Oct 17, doctors clearly want the government to understand that they will no longer quietly tolerate a loss in earnings. Last year, a similar strike by civil servants marked the beginning of a wave of industrial action in France that lasted until late December. Commentators predict a similar situation this year, but this year, the doctors will be joining the protest.
n a precedent-setting move last month, the Israeli Supreme Court, by a 7–4 decision, reversed its earlier judgment, ruling that the right to be a parent outweighs the right not to be one. However, on Oct 3 the would-be biological father sued in the appeals court, putting the widely debated judgment on hold again. In March, a panel of five justices had decided 4–1 that a man, Dani Nahmani, had a right to prevent his ex-wife, Ruti, from using her stored eggs to produce their offspring, although he had supported the procedure during years of fertility treatments when they were married and she could no longer produce any eggs. Justice Zevi Tal, the original lone dissenting opinion, summed up. “To balance the conflicting interests, we must note that the symmetrical language—‘to be a parent’ and ‘not to be a parent’ do not reflect equality of
1024
A
Danish HIV-positive haemophiliac has won his case against the health authorities in the last round of the Danish HIV-infected blood saga. In an unexpected and unique verdict the Supreme Court has decided that the Danish health authorities (Sundhedsstyrelsen and Sundhedsministeriet) must pay the haemophiliac in the region of DKr230 000 (US$42 000). In 1985 the man was treated with imported factor VIII that had not been heat treated. The authorities should have warned the doctors not to use the blood product, the Supreme Court said. In early 1985 several Danish doctors applied for the right to use virus-inactivated, heat-treated, imported factor VIII products, but the applications were denied by the authorities. This was “a clear mistake”, said the Court.
Kaare Skovmand
Israeli doctors ask to be gatekeepers
T
weight. Parenthood is a basic and existential value, both for the individual and for society; in contrast, there is no intrinsic value to the absence of parenthood”, which is based on privacy and the right to make intimate decisions, he wrote. Other comments included the recognition that motherhood and fatherhood are not equal but reciprocal, and just as a man cannot demand an abortion, so he is precluded from demanding cessation of artificial fertilisation and implantation. Nathan Lewin, a Washington lawyer, drew attention to the differences between this decision and a landmark case, decided in 1992 by the Supreme Court of Tennessee, USA, which granted equal significance to the right to procreate and to avoid it, as extensions of the right to privacy.
he chairman of the Israel Medical Association, Yoram Blachar, has made an official request to Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai to post emergency medical personnel at each of the border crossing points between Israel and the autonomous Palestinian regions. “We read recent press reports alleging that Palestinians in need of urgent medical treatment unavailable in the territories were being refused entry at crossing points. Ways must be found to ensure that those in need can reach Israeli hospitals without broaching security. If a medical expert were on duty, then cases of need could be assessed and confirmed”, said Blachar. He also referred to the “sensitive situation” at the crossings wherein some Palestinians have abused the policy, which grants access to emergency cases, and to patients under chronic care or in need of treatment not available in the autonomous regions. Blachar expressed concern about accusations in foreign papers that Israel has ignored the plight of Palestinians in need of medical care during the recent long closure. In his request he wrote, “As physicians, our primary concern is to care for the ill without regard to politics”.
Rachelle H B Fishman
Rachelle H B Fishman
Denis Durand de Bousingen
Israeli court rules on right to motherhood
I
Danish court awards haemophiliac
Vol 348 • October 12, 1996
POLICY AND PEOPLE
French doctors plan mass industrial action
F
rench general practitioners and specialists in private practice will close their offices and strike on Oct 17, in protest at the government’s health policy and saving plans. On the same day, all civil servants’ trade unions, including those representing health services, are to strike and demonstrations will take place throughout the country against the government’s social and economic policies. Three of the four main medical trade unions have decided to join the national strike day since “doctors’ patience is at an end now, because the government has systematically made them the scapegoat for all the financial problems of the health insurance”, says Claude Maffioli, president of the main doctors’ trade union Confédération des Syndicates Médicaux Français. Doctors are against the government’s increasing control and supervision of their work, which they feel is turning the health system into a state-run organisation. They are also afraid that new controls on their prescribing and other professional activities could lead to a substantial loss in income, for doc-
tors are now fined if they prescribe more drugs or make more examinations than their budget allows. On the night of Oct 3, most general practitioners refused to respond to emergency calls or make home visits, in protest at a new regulation that will reduce the time during which they are allowed to charge higher night fees, which is now between 20 00 h and 08 00 h but soon between only 21 00 h and 07 00 h. Doctors say that the amount of money saved by this measure will be only a drop in the ocean, yet, once again, general practitioners will bear the burden of this cost-cutting measure. By joining the strike on Oct 17, doctors clearly want the government to understand that they will no longer quietly tolerate a loss in earnings. Last year, a similar strike by civil servants marked the beginning of a wave of industrial action in France that lasted until late December. Commentators predict a similar situation this year, but this year, the doctors will be joining the protest.
n a precedent-setting move last month, the Israeli Supreme Court, by a 7–4 decision, reversed its earlier judgment, ruling that the right to be a parent outweighs the right not to be one. However, on Oct 3 the would-be biological father sued in the appeals court, putting the widely debated judgment on hold again. In March, a panel of five justices had decided 4–1 that a man, Dani Nahmani, had a right to prevent his ex-wife, Ruti, from using her stored eggs to produce their offspring, although he had supported the procedure during years of fertility treatments when they were married and she could no longer produce any eggs. Justice Zevi Tal, the original lone dissenting opinion, summed up. “To balance the conflicting interests, we must note that the symmetrical language—‘to be a parent’ and ‘not to be a parent’ do not reflect equality of
1024
A
Danish HIV-positive haemophiliac has won his case against the health authorities in the last round of the Danish HIV-infected blood saga. In an unexpected and unique verdict the Supreme Court has decided that the Danish health authorities (Sundhedsstyrelsen and Sundhedsministeriet) must pay the haemophiliac in the region of DKr230 000 (US$42 000). In 1985 the man was treated with imported factor VIII that had not been heat treated. The authorities should have warned the doctors not to use the blood product, the Supreme Court said. In early 1985 several Danish doctors applied for the right to use virus-inactivated, heat-treated, imported factor VIII products, but the applications were denied by the authorities. This was “a clear mistake”, said the Court.
Kaare Skovmand
Israeli doctors ask to be gatekeepers
T
weight. Parenthood is a basic and existential value, both for the individual and for society; in contrast, there is no intrinsic value to the absence of parenthood”, which is based on privacy and the right to make intimate decisions, he wrote. Other comments included the recognition that motherhood and fatherhood are not equal but reciprocal, and just as a man cannot demand an abortion, so he is precluded from demanding cessation of artificial fertilisation and implantation. Nathan Lewin, a Washington lawyer, drew attention to the differences between this decision and a landmark case, decided in 1992 by the Supreme Court of Tennessee, USA, which granted equal significance to the right to procreate and to avoid it, as extensions of the right to privacy.
he chairman of the Israel Medical Association, Yoram Blachar, has made an official request to Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai to post emergency medical personnel at each of the border crossing points between Israel and the autonomous Palestinian regions. “We read recent press reports alleging that Palestinians in need of urgent medical treatment unavailable in the territories were being refused entry at crossing points. Ways must be found to ensure that those in need can reach Israeli hospitals without broaching security. If a medical expert were on duty, then cases of need could be assessed and confirmed”, said Blachar. He also referred to the “sensitive situation” at the crossings wherein some Palestinians have abused the policy, which grants access to emergency cases, and to patients under chronic care or in need of treatment not available in the autonomous regions. Blachar expressed concern about accusations in foreign papers that Israel has ignored the plight of Palestinians in need of medical care during the recent long closure. In his request he wrote, “As physicians, our primary concern is to care for the ill without regard to politics”.
Rachelle H B Fishman
Rachelle H B Fishman
Denis Durand de Bousingen
Israeli court rules on right to motherhood
I
Danish court awards haemophiliac
Vol 348 • October 12, 1996