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Jehovah's Witnesses and Medical Practice in Mexico: Religious Freedom, Parens Patriae, and the Right to Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2001

JORGE HERNÁNDEZ-ARRIAGA
Affiliation:
Center for Studies in Bioethics at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico
CARLOS ALDANA-VALENZUELA
Affiliation:
Department of Neonatology at the Hospital de Ginecopediatria of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, and the Center for Studies in Bioethics at the University of Guanajuato
KENNETH V. ISERSON
Affiliation:
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics and Surgery (Emergency Medicine), the Program in Bioethics, and the Bioethics Committee at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Tucson

Abstract

The influx of new groups into society, such as recently established religious groups whose practices differ from societal norms, may disturb relatively stable communities. This instability is exacerbated if these practices contravene long-held fundamental societal tenets, such as the protection of children. This situation now exists in Mexico, where the country's traditional Catholic and secular values clash with those of a religion introduced from the United States, Jehovah's Witnesses. The focal point for these clashes, as it has been elsewhere, is in the bioethics arena.

Type
SPECIAL SECTION: CULTURE, HEALTH, AND BIOETHICS: AT THE CROSSROADS
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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