REAL Doctors - Ecuador

Ecuadorian Obstetricians and Gynecologists Issue Thundering Manifesto Against Abortion

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR, June 17, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - At a recent meeting held to discuss abortion, Ecuadorian obstetricians and gynecologists issued a declaration denouncing abortion as "not only an illegal act, but a criminal one" and stating that "under no circumstances should abortion be decriminalized" (see full English translation at http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061714.html).

The Ecuadorian Federation of Societies of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FESGO), made the statement at a "workshop" on the subject of abortion held in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The document begins by stating that "we are not in agreement with any form of induced abortion; life is inviolable from the moment of conception. The elimination of an innocent human being is always unacceptable, ethically and medically speaking."

"We are against induced abortion because it is not only an illegal act, but a criminal one...Under no circumstances should abortion be decriminalized in Ecuador," the document continues. "To the contrary, policies and strategies must be established to strengthen moral values and defend the basic principles of universal bioethics."

The members of the Federation note that the humanity of the embryo is not a matter of religion, but of medical science.

"Science teaches that human life begins at conception," the declaration states. "If it is also true that it is affirmed by religion, it does not for that reason cease to be a strictly scientific truth, to be transformed into a religious opinion. He who denies that human life begins with conception does not need to contend with religion, but science. To deny this certainty of biology is not to express a lack of faith, but a lack of basic knowledge of human genetics, something that is even known by the general public."

more...