My school has a reproductive rights society but no complementary group for pro-life students, I'd like to know what's involved with starting such a group.
The procedure for starting your own group usually depends on the school's individual policies.
I don't see a need for any such group since it is unethical for a doctor to try to persuade a patient to have or not to have an abortion based on their own personal beliefs.
If that were the case, then what's the point of MS4C? After all, isn't it is "
unethical for a doctor to try to persuade a patient to have an abortion based on their own personal beliefs"?
Patients are not always the brightest bulbs in the box, but I've yet to hear of a patient who could NOT see the "advantages" in having an abortion. Most of them are actually poorly educated as to the risks of an elective D&E, however.
As far as I was taught in our ethics class, our job is to educate the patient about the abortion procedure/risks and let them make their own decision. As you mentioned, social workers are supposed to take care of the rest. As for the social workers being overworked, aren't many doctors overworked as well?
If there's one thing that MS3 has taught me, it's that the stuff taught in "first year ethics classes" is usually complete and utter
bull****.
It's actually not necessarily your job to educate the patient about the abortion procedure and risks, unless you're the one who is going to perform the abortion.
And the thing that most "medical ethicists" fail to realize (never having actually seen a live patient EVER) is that most patients come to you with their minds made up. Especially when it comes to these issues - most patients have either talked to a friend or family member who has had an abortion, and have decided accordingly. In the ethics classes, they like to make it seem like you'll be overrun with patients who are horribly emotionally conflicted about an unexpected pregnancy, but that's not usually the case.
Basically - the abortion issue is never as cut and dried as they'd like to tell you it is in your MS1 medical ethics classes.
Heres a suggestion - YOU can personally pay a stipend (lets say ~$800/month) to every person you convince to keep their unwanted kid.
You're making the same mistake that a lot of other med students and physicians tend to make.
You're assuming that patients are blank slates....and that physicians are the
ONLY ONES who have an opinion about abortion.
What you're failing to realize is that OB/gyn is the one specialty that even lay people have real experience with - psych is probably a close second. Everyone knows someone who has been pregnant or has delivered a baby...and so everyone has an opinion on these issues.
Most patients, just like most Americans, tend to have strongly defined opinions about abortion - and that (more than any doctor) influences their decision to keep the child or not. Sure, some patients may be conflicted - but you'd be surprised at just how many patients will come to see you after having made a decision on their own. There's very little melodramatic attempts at "convincing" a patient one way or the other - because, like I said, patients will decide by themselves.