Objection to Conscience: An Argument Against Conscience Exemptions in Healthcare

'In good conscience': conscience-based exemptions and proper medical treatment.

Lack of clarity about the proper limits of conscientious refusal to participate in particular healthcare practices has given rise to fears that, in the absence of clear parameters, conscience-based exemptions may become increasingly widespread, leading to intolerable burdens on health professionals, patients, and institutions. Here, we identify three factors which clarify the proper scope of co...

Justification for conscience exemptions in health care.

Some bioethicists argue that conscientious objectors in health care should have to justify themselves, just as objectors in the military do. They should have to provide reasons that explain why they should be exempt from offering the services that they find offensive. There are two versions of this view in the literature, each giving different standards of justification. We show these views are...

In good conscience: the legal trend to include prescription contraceptives in employer insurance plans and Catholic charities' "conscience clause" objection.

Conscience clauses and oral contraceptives: conscientious objection or calculated obstruction?

This article examines the ethical and legal implications of conscience clauses, which allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for oral contraceptives due to their belief that they may constitute abortifacients. The author provides an informative background on contraception and the history of how abortion has been viewed in this country, then takes a critical look at some of the consci...

Conscience Wars: Complicity-Based Conscience Claims in Religion and Politics

Persons of faith are now seeking religious exemptions from laws concerning sex, reproduction, and marriage on the ground that the law makes the objector complicit in the assertedly sinful conduct of others. We term claims of this kind, which were at issue in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, complicity-based conscience claims. Complicity-based conscience claims differ in form and in social logic f...