Greek hierarchs support Samos island anesthesiologists who refuse to aid abortions

According to the Metropolitan’s statistics, there are 300,000 abortions performed yearly in a Greek population of 11 million. One third of these abortions are performed on girls under the age of 18.


Therefore, the Greek hierarches are trying to support in any way all initiatives against abortion. Metropolitans Seraphim of Piraeus and Eusebios of Samos came out in support of the anesthesiologists who refused to administer anesthesia to pregnant women for abortion procedures.

These doctors had presented the hospital with a written warning that due to their religious convictions and conscience, they refuse to administer anesthesia for such operations.

To support their stance, the doctors cited article 31 of Law 3418/2005 (the codes of medical ethics), which provides that a “doctor may cite the norms and principles of ethical conscience and refuse to perform services or participate in procedures that artificially cease pregnancies, with the exception of unavoidable risk to the pregnant woman’s life or risk of irreversible harm to her health”.

The hospital administration does not have the right to force the doctors to participate in these procedures. As could be expected, the doctors’ decision evoked a storm in the liberal and feminist press of Greece. However, it has the full support of the Greek Orthodox Church.

The country’s birth rate is only 90,000, while the mortality rate in Greece is 120,000 people per year.

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