ABSTRACT
To take a parallel from the removal of an appendix, the anaesthetist makes all the preparations, but the removal is done by the surgeon himself. So here, the doctor makes the preparations-inserting the catheter-but the pregnancy is terminated by the act-the continuous act-done by the nurses, from the moment that they start the pump or the drip to the moment the baby is expelled.
The Royal College objection I can quite understand that many nurses dislike having anything to do with these abortions. It is a soul-destroying task. The nurses are young women who are dedicated by their profession and training to do all they can to preserve life. Yet here they are called upon to destroy it. It is true that the statute gives them an escape clause. They can refuse to participate in any treatment to which they have a 'conscientious objection': see s 4 of the Act of 1967. But the Report of the Committee on the Working of the Abortion Act (1974) (Cmnd 5579), the Lane Report, shows that many nurses do not take advantage ofthis I escape clause'. Because it means that other nurses will have to do this heart-rending task. And they feel it may be held against them by their superiors. So they take part in it-much against their will, see para 321-74 of the Lane Report.
