The News of the World may be defunct, but the Ghost of Gotcha! journalism still stalks the corridors of Fleet Street. The latest shock-horror exclusive in Britain concerns abortion. In an undercover operation the London Telegraph recorded British doctors blithely agreeing to do sex-selective abortions – which are strictly illegal in the UK. Everyone from the Health Secretary to abortion activists professes horror at this contempt for the law and the unethical falsification of paperwork. 

However, another story in this week’s newsletter makes me wonder why people are surprised. A survey of American trainee obstetricians and gynaecologists has found that a substantial proportion of them falsified their resumes in order to secure a coveted training position. Falsifying paperwork in an abortion clinic  couldn’t stretch their consciences much further.

And finally, in an article which seems to justify all the slippery slope arguments ever made about abortion, two ethicists argue in one of the leading journals in bioethics that there can be nothing wrong with infanticide if there is nothing wrong with abortion. It is a lonely view for which Peter Singer has been excoriated for many years. Now, finally, he has some company.

Cheers,

Michael Cook
The News of the World may be defunct, but the Ghost of Gotcha! journalism still stalks the corridors of Fleet Street. The latest shock-horror exclusive in Britain concerns abortion.
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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

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