The responsibility of dealing with abortion rests uncomfortably on the shoulders of the medical profession. Doctors are trained to preserve life and many feel a moral and ethical objection to terminating it. However, views are often confused and despite vociferous objections to liberal abortion from many in the medical and nursing profession, they themselves have been shown to make good use of the abortion services (Potts, Diggory and Peel, 1977). A further difficulty is that the patient has usually made her own diagnosis and has prescribed her own treatment. Medical training, on the whole, teaches doctors to take a careful history, evaluate the symptoms, make a diagnosis and offer treatment and advice. This may lead to some doctors finding it difficult to be mere technicians, responding to the patient’s wishes. Overall, therefore, in dealing with a woman with an unplanned pregnancy, we may end up with a reluctant doctor and a reluctant patient.
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