The Irish Medical Council’s Fitness to Practice Committee has been accused of displaying intolerance towards freedom of conscience in its attempt to punish a Galway based fertility doctor who refused to treat an unmarried couple.
Independent NUI senator Rónán Mullen yesterday criticised the committee for showing “little respect” for a Catholic doctor’s right to stand by “his conscientious belief in marriage”.
Senator Mullen made the comment following a report in the Irish Catholic newspaper which revealed that Dr Phil Boyle, who runs a fertility clinic at Galway Clinic in Doughiska, was investigated for professional misconduct after indicating that he did not cater for non-married couples.
Commenting on the investigation, Senator Mullen said: “Dr Boyle appears to have got off on a technicality but the Fitness to Practice Committee’s decision to hear this case showed little respect for this doctor’s right to abide by his conscience and sense of professional duty.
“The committee’s approach is all the more difficult to understand since Dr Boyle probably enjoys Constitutional protection for the approach he has taken. In Article 41.3.1 of the Constitution, the State ‘pledges itself to guard with special care the institution of Marriage, on which the Family is founded’.”
“Ireland mustn’t become a cold house for people of conscience. If there is any attempt to erode freedom of conscience in these matters, medical guidelines, and equality legislation will need to be amended. We must safeguard a person’s right to abide by a sincerely-formed conscience on any matter where there is disagreement among reasonably-minded people,” he said.
