The commented decisions concern the issue of freedom of conscience in the midwifery profession and the possibility of its restriction by the state in connection with the need to ensure access to health care for pregnant women, in particular those choosing to terminate their pregnancy. The European Court of Human Rights, breaking with the previous line of jurisprudence, ruled that where the possibility of termination of pregnancy is provided for by national law and implemented within the framework of the health care system, a person intending to exercise the profession of midwife, which entails, inter alia, the obligation to participate in abortion procedures, cannot exempt herself from this obligation on the grounds of conscientious objection. The author disagrees with the position of the Court and with the reasoning presented by it, which led it to declare the complaints as manifestly unfounded.
Dynamic development of natural sciences, often called the biotechnological revolution, which we observe at this very moment, leads human being to be the master of his life. Today man is able to create life in laboratories, tomorrow – by using genetic engineering – he may be able to give any shape to this artificial life. Human freedom seems to have no limits. At the other hand, that what seems to be full freedom may become the scariest prison. The intervention in genetic heritage may enslave human being, catching it in anew form, without possibilities to be back to the ‘natural’ one. In the paper the author highlights the range of the problem of human nature and its protection as the condicio sine qua non of ensuring the individual’s freedom.
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