There are guidelines for the way consultant posts are advertised and interviewed. However, realistically we have to accept that it is likely that holding anti-abortion views may occasionally go against us. In obstetrics prenatal screening may detect fetal abnormality. Termination may not always be the parents choice - but it usually is. After appropriate counselling such patients under my care are generally transferred to one of my colleagues for their abortion.
Ethical problems arise in infertility treatment and in particular, assisted conception.
The chief problem area concerns the status of the human embryo. Certain contraceptive methods are known to work in an abortifacient manner. Trainees are now given a number and normally are assured of more structured progress through the next five years. Training requires maximum emotional and physical commitment. Although increasingly junior doctors now live out, the nights on-call are definitely in residence with immediate access to bleep and phone.