Letter: Care comes first

IN response to Martin Blackshaw (Letters, 23 January) it beggars belief that nurses, whatever their religious beliefs, should demand the right to pick and choose which patients they treat, and which duties they perform, according to their personal prejudices – sorry, Christian conscience.

There might be more sympathy for the Catholic view on abortion if Catholics advocated the use of contraceptives, but of course rigid idealism and dogma prevails over realism.

Many will also be surprised that the Christian conscience, so evidently absent in the priestly child abuse scandal, experiences a miraculous resurrection by Cardinal O’Brien when his Church’s dogma is perceived to be under threat.

I think most reasonable people view the health service as being first and foremost about patients, whatever their perceived faults, not about its staff being able to exercise their personal prejudices and superstitions.

Alistair McBay

Lawmuirview

Methven