The Philippines: a public awakening

The constitution of the Philippines has a clause in it that specifically mentions the protection of the unborn from the moment of conception. The population of the Philippines is 85% catholic and as such issues like abortion and birth control are settled by the populations adherence to Catholic dogma. Corazon Aquino has admitted publicly that the citizens of the Philippines have the right to raise their families according to their religious ideals; however she also admits that population pressure are responsible for a great deal of her countrys problems. An estimated 70% of the Filipino population is poor. 32% of doctors trained in the Philippines practice outside its borders thus creating a shortage of medical personnel. The result of this fact is that medical facilities are not always available to the general public and 7 out of 10 deaths occur without the deceased having received medical treatment. The cost of pharmaceuticals is beyond the reach of most Filipinos resulting in the government requiring that prescriptions be written for generic drugs. In 1980 a symposium on "Current Issues Common to Medicine and the Law" provided a forum for doctors lawyers academics and government officials to talk about health issues such as physicians liability the law of negligence informed consent the definition of death human experimentation and tissue donation.