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How to Allow Conscientious Objection in Medicine While Protecting Patient Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2016

AARON ANCELL  and
WALTER SINNOTT-ARMSTRONG
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Abstract:

Paradigmatic cases of conscientious objection in medicine are those in which a physician refuses to provide a medical service or good because doing so would conflict with that physician’s personal moral or religious beliefs. Should such refusals be allowed in medicine? We argue that (1) many conscientious objections to providing certain services must be allowed because they fall within the range of freedom that physicians have to determine which services to offer in their practices; (2) at least some conscientious objections to serving particular groups of patients should be allowed because they are not invidiously discriminatory; and (3) even in cases of invidiously discriminatory conscientious objections, legally prohibiting individual physicians from refusing to serve patients on the basis of such objections is not always the best solution.

Keywords

conscientious objectionmedicinediscriminationrightslaw
Type
Special Section: Conscientious Objection in Healthcare: Problems and Perspectives
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 120 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

Notes

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5. See note 3, Savulescu 2006, at 294.

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