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Henry Morgentaler Canadian Safe Abortion Crusader

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Henry Morgentaler Canadian Safe Abortion Crusader OBITUARIES Henry Morgentaler Canadian safe abortion crusader Henry Morgentaler (b 1923; q University that pregnant women should have the right of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1953) died to terminate unplanned pregnancies in safe after a heart attack on 29 May 2013. abortion procedures. After his appearance women sought him to help them end their Certain individuals manage in their lifetimes to pregnancies. Initially Morgentaler told them both inspire tremendous love and respect, and that he was unable to help but in 1969 he attract passionate hatred. Dr Henekh (“Henry”) opened a reproductive rights clinic in Montreal. Morgentaler was such a man. The clinic offered abortions despite the Morgentaler was a family doctor who personal, professional, and financial risks helped change Canadian law and the lives of for Morgentaler. In 1970 he was arrested and thousands of women. He dedicated his life charged with two counts of performing an to helping women obtain safe abortions in illegal abortion. (During his career Morgentaler an atmosphere of compassion and empathy. was charged with performing illegal abortions His philosophy was: “Every mother a willing on four different occasions.) In 1974 he was mother, every child a wanted child.”1 sentenced to 18 months in prison by an appeals On 28 January 1988 the Supreme Court of court, even though a jury had acquitted him Canada’s ruling of R v Morgentaler declared the previous November. He started serving the Canada’s criminal code prohibiting abortion sentence in March 1975, had a heart attack in unconstitutional as it violated a woman’s His philosophy was: “Every prison, and was released in January 1976. In right—under the Canadian Charter of Rights mother a willing mother, every the same year Canada’s law was changed so that and Freedoms—to security of person. child a wanted child” jury verdicts could no longer be overturned by Previously abortion was allowed only in an appeals court—this became known as the situations where certification of approval was access to safe abortion, and the injustice in Morgentaler amendment. signed by a committee of doctors who agreed the process that was neither consistent nor In 1983 Morgentaler opened two more that the abortion was necessary for the physical supportive of patient safety, even when legal.”4 clinics, in Toronto and Winnipeg. Eventually or mental wellbeing of the mother. “Our country has lost a man of great courage, he operated eight freestanding abortion clinics Morgentaler said that the Supreme Court’s conviction, and personal bravery,”5 said the across Canada. Pro-life activists protested ruling was a vindication of everything he Ontario premier, Kathleen Wynne. “Due in outside each clinic. The Toronto clinic was believed in, bringing an end to a law that was large part to his efforts and advocacy, women firebombed and burned down in 1992. “barbarous, cruel and unjust.” “For the first in Ontario and across Canada have the right At the end of his career, Morgentaler time, it gave women the status of full human to control their reproductive choices . His estimated he had personally performed about beings able to make decisions about their own contributions to a fair society have been felt 80 000 abortions over the years. He pioneered lives,” he said.2 around the globe.” the vacuum suction method of abortion in Morgentaler was born in Lodz in Poland in Canada. Leader of the abortion movement in Canada 1923. His home town was occupied by the Henry Morgentaler struggled with nightmares By the time he died in his Toronto home in German army in 1939. His father was killed about the concentration camps—he had 2013, Henry Morgentaler had become a by the Gestapo, and his mother and sister witnessed mass murder by the Nazis and was member of the Order of Canada (2008) and died in Treblinka and Auschwitz. Morgentaler accused of being a mass murderer by anti- received an honorary doctorate at the University himself was imprisoned in the Lodz ghetto and abortion groups. His first marriage to Chava of Western Ontario in recognition of his ultimately Dachau. When he was released, at and his second marriage to Carmen Wernli achievements. In the same year pro-life activists age 22, he weighed 70 pounds and had lost all both ended in divorce. He did, however, enjoy in Canada mourned the 25th anniversary of the his teeth. His childhood sweetheart and future happy moments with his family, according Morgentaler decision. On Henry Morgentaler’s wife, Chava (Eva) Rosenfarb, also survived the to his son Abraham, a urologist at Harvard passing the ProWomanProLife group issued a Holocaust. Medical School. He recalls that time spent with statement: “Where the public actions of a man After the war Morgentaler entered medical his father “was full of laughter, silliness, and are wrong, it is impossible to speak soothing school at Marburg-Lahn University in Germany. games . On family vacations in other countries platitudes at the time of his death. Morgentaler, He later moved to Belgium and, in 1950, to . he would sit up front with the taxi driver and time will show, stood on the wrong side of Canada. He graduated from the Université engage him in conversation, using one of his history.”3 de Montréal in 1953 and started a practice in seven languages.”6 Morgentaler leaves his wife, Dorothy Shaw, past president of the Society family medicine in 1955, having gained his Arlene (née Leibovitch); four children; several of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canadian citizenship. grandchildren and his extended family. Canada, and of the International Federation In 1967 Morgentaler spoke to the Canadian Barbara Kermode-Scott, Calgary of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, said, “Dr government’s commons health and welfare [email protected] Morgentaler understood the context of a committee in his role as a spokesperson for the References are in the version on bmj.com. woman’s life, the consequences of not having Humanist Association of Canada. He argued Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f4569 BMJ | 7 SEPTEMBER 2013 | VOLUME 347 27 OBITUARIES senior registrar at the regional chairman of the Cumberland division, Alick Cameron cardiothoracic centre at Sefton before president of the Border Counties his appointment to north Wales, branch, and member of council. where, within 10 years, he created a He was chairman of the Cumbria progressive cardiac department. A faculty of the Royal College of GPs. busy clinician, he was also active on He was elected a fellow of the BMA. committees locally and nationally. Predeceased by Elaine, he leaves two After his family his great love was children and a grandson. horse riding and hunting, and he was 1963; MRCP, FRCS Eng), died from E Rankin, P Chin a daring cross country jumper. He took hepatocellular carcinoma secondary Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f5024 Former general practitioner (b 1922; early retirement because of ill health. to occupationally acquired hepatitis q Edinburgh 1946; MD, DO, MRCGP, He leaves Susan and two children. C on 12 August 2012. DHMSA), died from metastatic Nick Waterfield Robert Gordon Pickard had a prostate cancer on 17 June 2013. Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f5029 distinguished undergraduate career Born in India, Alick Cameron (“Sandy”) and spent two years in neurosurgery did his national service with the Royal Angela Emily Pilkington at the Atkinson Morley Hospital, Army Medical Corps in Palestine. On Queen Square, and the Wessex returning to the UK he completed his Jordan Neurological Centre before returning hospital jobs and became a general to the St George’s rotation (St practitioner with a special interest George’s Hospital, Winchester, and in ophthalmology, married, and had the Royal Marsden) to train in general four children. In 1980 he remarried surgery. During this time, he survived Thomas Arthur Richards and had another child. It was at this hepatorenal failure and hepatitis B, General practitioner Northampton time that his interest in medical thanks to the liver unit at King’s. He (b 1923; q King’s College Hospital, history began, and he completed a was appointed consultant general London, 1945), died from prostate postgraduate diploma in the subject. surgeon at Law Hospital in 1982. He and bladder cancer on 17 June 2013. In 1988 he retired and the family Former senior registrar in medicine had a notorious sense of humour that Thomas Arthur Richards (“Tom”) did moved to Trusham, Devon, where he Mary Potter Hospice, Wellington, did not always endear him to the self his national service in the Royal Army immersed himself in village life, local New Zealand (b 1961; q University regarding. He leaves his wife, Catrina, Reserve Corps (1946-48), serving in history, and writing, and, until a good Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and two children. Palestine and Ethiopia. He worked as age, playing tennis and bridge. His 1984; FRACP; DA (UK)), d around 6 John Pickard, Donald Reid. a medical registrar in Northampton interests were wide ranging, and he August 2012. Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f5025 and Manchester before joining a published several books. Sandy leaves Angela Emily Pilkington Jordan general practice in Northampton his wife, Angela; five children; and (“Emily”) completed house jobs in Archibald Macpherson in 1953, where he worked until he seven grandchildren. the Outer Hebrides and Nottingham. retired in 1988. He helped arrange Charlotte Higgins She started a career in anaesthesia Rankin postgraduate education to keep Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f5031 in Canterbury, but her husband abreast of times in medicine and was persuaded her to leave and do involved in GP training in the town. Tom George Jeffrey Green volunteer work in Kenya. She and her served in the St John Ambulance for 25 husband returned to South Africa in years as divisional surgeon and later 1990.
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