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Fox D. Medical Disobedience and the Conscientious Provision of Prohibited Care. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS : AJOB 2021; 21:72-74. [PMID: 34313562 DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2021.1940361] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
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Kim EJ, Ferguson K. Does Medicine Need to Accommodate Positive Conscientious Objections to Morally Self-Correct? THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS : AJOB 2021; 21:74-76. [PMID: 34313574 DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2021.1940362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
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McLeod C. Justified Asymmetries: Positive and Negative Claims to Conscience in Reproductive Health Care. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS : AJOB 2021; 21:60-62. [PMID: 34313558 DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2021.1940368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
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Vaughan DM, Campo-Engelstein L. Conscience Claims and Cost: Tribunals and the Asymmetry Debate. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS : AJOB 2021; 21:70-72. [PMID: 34313568 DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2021.1940367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
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Eberl JT. What Makes Conscientious Refusals Concerning Abortion Different. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS : AJOB 2021; 21:62-64. [PMID: 34313563 DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2021.1940372] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
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Greenblum J, Kasperbauer TJ. In Defence of Forgetting Evil: A Reply to Pilkington on Conscientious Objection. JOURNAL OF BIOETHICAL INQUIRY 2021; 18:189-191. [PMID: 33400055 DOI: 10.1007/s11673-020-10078-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2020] [Accepted: 12/16/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
In a recent article for this journal, Bryan Pilkington (2019) makes a number of critical observations about one of our arguments for non-traditional medical conscientious objectors' duty to refer. Non-traditional conscientious objectors are those professionals who object to indirectly performing actions-like, say, referring to a physician who will perform an abortion. In our response here, we discuss his central objection and clarify our position on the role of value conflicts in non-traditional conscientious objection.
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Pruski M. Reply to: Beyond Money: Conscientious Objection in Medicine as a Conflict of Interests. JOURNAL OF BIOETHICAL INQUIRY 2021; 18:177-180. [PMID: 33405194 DOI: 10.1007/s11673-020-10082-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2020] [Accepted: 12/23/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Giubilini and Savulescu in their recent Journal of Bioethical Inquiry symposium article presented an account of conscientious objection that argues for its recognition as a non-financial conflict of interest. In this short commentary, I highlight some problems with their account. First, I discuss their solicitor analogy. Second, I discuss some problems surrounding their objectivity claim about standards of medical care. Next, I discuss some issues arising from consistently applying their approach. Finally, I highlight that conscientious objection should be viewed not as a conflict of interest but as something that society has an interest in preserving. I conclude by arguing that clinicians who have a conscientious objection can be treated in the same way as those who decide to subspecialize and do not need to give up work in their specialty. While Giubilini and Savulescu present an interesting argument about conscientious objection, theirs is not a compelling view. Indeed, the way we approach conscientious objection has more to teach us about conflicts of interest than the other way around.
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Giubilini A, Savulescu J. Conscientious Objection, Conflicts of Interests, and Choosing the Right Analogies. A Reply to Pruski. JOURNAL OF BIOETHICAL INQUIRY 2021; 18:181-185. [PMID: 33538935 PMCID: PMC7612086 DOI: 10.1007/s11673-021-10089-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Accepted: 12/23/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
In this response paper, we respond to the criticisms that Michal Pruski raised against our article "Beyond Money: Conscientious Objection in Medicine as a Conflict of Interests." We defend our original position against conscientious objection in healthcare by suggesting that the analogies Pruski uses to criticize our paper miss the relevant point and that some of the analogies he uses and the implications he draws are misplaced.
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Johnson SB, Butcher F. Doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic: what are their duties and what is owed to them? JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ETHICS 2021; 47:12-15. [PMID: 33060186 PMCID: PMC7565272 DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2020-106266] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2020] [Revised: 09/15/2020] [Accepted: 10/02/2020] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Doctors form an essential part of an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We argue they have a duty to participate in pandemic response due to their special skills, but these skills vary between different doctors, and their duties are constrained by other competing rights. We conclude that while doctors should be encouraged to meet the demand for medical aid in the pandemic, those who make the sacrifices and increased efforts are owed reciprocal obligations in return. When reciprocal obligations are not met, doctors are further justified in opting out of specific tasks, as long as this is proportionate to the unmet obligation.
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Marshall P, Zúñiga Y. The overprotection of conscientious objection in Chile's abortion regulation. Dev World Bioeth 2020; 21:58-62. [PMID: 33258214 DOI: 10.1111/dewb.12303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2020] [Accepted: 11/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
This paper critically analyses conscientious objection to abortion in the context of the new regulation of pregnancy termination in Chile. It argues that adequate regulation should not be blind: The bioethical requirements that seek to balance the interests involved must consider the legal regulation of the interests at stake, the context in which they are implemented, and, fundamentally, the effectiveness of the solutions adopted. Attention should be paid to the risks involved in the political use of conscientious objection to prevent the implementation of women's reproductive rights. In describing the process of the entrenchment and expansion of conscientious objection to abortion in Chile, we show how this process has overprotected conscience and how the risks of undermining the effectiveness of the new abortion legislation hinder the enjoyment of rights entrenched by the law.
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Hirsch JD, San Agustin K, Barnes C, Agarwal A, Allen K, Rivera S, Laufer D, Maria R, Lake S, Daniels CE. Impact of a contactless prescription pickup kiosk on prescription abandonment, patient experience, and pharmacist consultations. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003) 2020; 61:151-157.e1. [PMID: 33189557 DOI: 10.1016/j.japh.2020.10.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/08/2020] [Revised: 10/04/2020] [Accepted: 10/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Investigate the impact of increased access to new and refilled prescriptions by means of an automated pickup kiosk (Asteres ScriptCenter) on prescription abandonment rates, patient experience, and pharmacist consultations. DESIGN Nonrandomized, observational study using retrospective, deidentified data from the filling pharmacy, the kiosk, and a pharmacist-completed counseling documentation log over a 35-month study period. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Hospital employees opting to use a kiosk located in the lobby with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week access for pickups and a telephone pharmacist consultation service compared with employees using the regular counter at the filling pharmacy. OUTCOME MEASURES Return to stock (RTS) rate to assess prescription abandonment, time to prescription pickup, consultation duration, kiosk user assessment, and pharmacist assessment of counseling ability. RESULTS Approximately 9% of employees (440) enrolled to use the kiosk, with 5062 kiosk pickups recorded for new prescriptions (29%), refill prescriptions (33%), and over-the-counters (38%). The mean kiosk RTS (4.3% ± 3.2) was lower than that at the regular counter (5.6% ± 0.8), P = 0.04, whereas the mean time to pickup was approximately 1 day greater at the kiosk than the regular counter (2.8 ± 0.4 vs. 1.8 ± 0.2, P < 0.001). The average kiosk consultation was approximately 1 minute shorter (2.0 ± 1.4) than that of the regular counter (3.4 ± 1.9, P < 0.001), and fewer patients using the kiosk (15.7%) had additional questions at the end of a consultation session than patients at the regular counter (38.8%, P < 0.001). Most of the kiosk users agreed that their prescription questions were answered and that kiosk convenience was an important reason for using the filling pharmacy. Almost all (>90%) pharmacists indicated that they were able to effectively counsel patients at the kiosk and the regular counter. CONCLUSION The kiosk, used by self-selected health care workers located in a hospital workplace setting with 24 hours a day, 7 days a week access, was a convenient, contactless pickup extension of the filling pharmacy with a lower prescription abandonment rate and similar pickup and consultation characteristics as at the regular pharmacy counter.
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Magelssen M, Ewnetu DB. Professionals' experience with conscientious objection to abortion in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: An interview study. Dev World Bioeth 2020; 21:68-73. [PMID: 33108696 DOI: 10.1111/dewb.12297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
In Ethiopia, conscientious objection (CO) to abortion provision is not allowed due to government regulations. We here report findings from a qualitative interview study of 30 healthcare professionals from different professions working with abortion in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. CO is practised despite the regulations forbidding it. Most informants appeared to be unfamiliar with the prohibition or else did not accord it weight in their moral reasoning. Proponents of institutionalization/toleration of CO claimed that accommodation was often feasible in a hospital setting because colleagues could take over. Opponents pointed to threats to patient access in rural settings especially. Both proponents and opponents invoked tenets of professional ethics, viz., the right not to be coerced into actions one deems unacceptable, or the duty to provide care, respectively. More societal and professional discussion of the ethics and regulation of CO, and a clearer link between legal regulation and ethical guidance for professionals, are called for.
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Emmerich N, Phillips C. Should professional interpreters be able to conscientiously object in healthcare settings? JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ETHICS 2020; 46:700-704. [PMID: 31796546 DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2019-105767] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2019] [Revised: 11/13/2019] [Accepted: 11/18/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
In a globalised world, healthcare professionals will inevitably find themselves caring for patients whose first language differs from their own. Drawing on experiences in Australia, this paper examines a specific problem that can arise in medical consultations using professional interpreters: whether the moral objections of interpreters should be accommodated as conscientious objections if and when their services are required in contexts where healthcare professionals have such entitlements, most notably in relation to consultations concerning termination of pregnancy and voluntary assisted dying. We argue that existing statements of professional ethics suggest that interpreters should not be accorded such rights. The social organisation of healthcare and interpreting services in Australia may mean those who have serious objections to particular medical practices could provide their services in restricted healthcare contexts. Nevertheless, as a general rule, interpreters who have such objections should avoid working within healthcare.
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Kottow M. Conscientious objection in medicine: Experience in Chile. Dev World Bioeth 2020; 21:63-67. [PMID: 32970374 DOI: 10.1111/dewb.12294] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Latin American countries have slowly enacted laws decriminalizing abortion in three circumstances: Life-threatening risk for the pregnant woman, extra-uterine non-viability of malformed foetus, and pregnancy due to rape or incest. Chile is one of the last countries to adopt such a law, formulated in an increasingly restrictive format. Conservative politicians and Church-related healthcare institutions promptly announced individual and institutional conscientious objection based on the right of private facilities to obey their ideology and personal moral integrity. Juridical consultations and Constitutional Court rulings allowed private hospitals to uphold their objection even if contracted to provide some public health services. Under these conditions, only a few hundred women requested and obtained a legal abortion, while an estimated 100,000 continued to depend on unsafe procedures. Bioethical debate was silenced by the unfettered drive for conscientious objection that continues to limit women's autonomy, and fails to ease the public health scourge of massive unsafe clandestine abortions.
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Williams JTB, O'Leary ST, Nussbaum AM. Caring for the Vaccine-Hesitant Family: Evidence-Based Alternatives to Dismissal. J Pediatr 2020; 224:137-140. [PMID: 32446723 PMCID: PMC7242184 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2020.05.029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Revised: 05/07/2020] [Accepted: 05/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Ismail NAS, Ramli NS, Hamzaid NH, Hassan NI. Exploring Eating and Nutritional Challenges for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Parents' and Special Educators' Perceptions. Nutrients 2020; 12:E2530. [PMID: 32825466 PMCID: PMC7551651 DOI: 10.3390/nu12092530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2020] [Revised: 08/07/2020] [Accepted: 08/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disability that is frequently associated with food refusal, limited food repertoire and high-frequency single food intake mainly among children with ASD. Provision of nutrition can be very challenging due to the fact of these behavioural problems, either for the parents or special educators. Healthy nutrition is associated with providing and consuming nutritious food with results being in a good state of health. Semi-structured focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted among 20 participants at a National Autism Centre to explore their understanding towards healthy nutrition. They were parents and special educators who were actively involved with children with ASD. A series of discussions were transcribed verbatim, and four researchers examined each transcript. Inductive analysis linking codes into main thematic categories was conducted using the constant comparison approach across the full data set. The outcome suggested that participants had limited knowledge relating to the proper dietary and nutritional needs of the children. The key messages from the discussion provide a foundation on the development of a nutrition education module which involves primary caretakers of children with ASD.
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Wicclair M. Allocating Ventilators During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Conscientious Objection. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS : AJOB 2020; 20:204-207. [PMID: 32716798 DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1777347] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
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Giubilini A, Savulescu J. Beyond Money: Conscientious Objection in Medicine as a Conflict of Interests. JOURNAL OF BIOETHICAL INQUIRY 2020; 17:229-243. [PMID: 32399648 PMCID: PMC7367904 DOI: 10.1007/s11673-020-09976-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2019] [Accepted: 04/01/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Conflict of interests (COIs) in medicine are typically taken to be financial in nature: it is often assumed that a COI occurs when a healthcare practitioner's financial interest conflicts with patients' interests, public health interests, or professional obligations more generally. Even when non-financial COIs are acknowledged, ethical concerns are almost exclusively reserved for financial COIs. However, the notion of "interests" cannot be reduced to its financial component. Individuals in general, and medical professionals in particular, have different types of interests, many of which are non-financial in nature but can still conflict with professional obligations. The debate about healthcare delivery has largely overlooked this broader notion of interests. Here, we will focus on health practitioners' moral or religious values as particular types of personal interests involved in healthcare delivery that can generate COIs and on conscientious objection in healthcare as the expression of a particular type of COI. We argue that, in the healthcare context, the COIs generated by interests of conscience can be as ethically problematic, and therefore should be treated in the same way, as financial COIs.
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Biggs MA, Casas L, Ramm A, Baba CF, Correa SP. Medical and midwifery students' views on the use of conscientious objection in abortion care, following legal reform in Chile: a cross-sectional study. BMC Med Ethics 2020; 21:42. [PMID: 32448300 PMCID: PMC7245938 DOI: 10.1186/s12910-020-00484-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2020] [Accepted: 05/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In August 2017, Chile lifted its complete ban on abortion by permitting abortion in three limited circumstances: 1) to save a woman's life, 2) lethal fetal anomaly, and 3) rape. The new law allows regulated use of conscientious objection (CO) in abortion care, including allowing institutions to register as objectors. This study assesses medical and midwifery students' support for CO, following legal reform. METHODS From October 2017 to May 2018, we surveyed medical and midwifery students from seven universities located in Santiago, Chile. Universities included 4 secular (2 public and 2 private) and 3 private religiously-affiliated universities; all offering medical degrees with a specialization in obstetrics and gynecology (ob-gyn) and five offering midwifery degrees. We used generalized estimating equations (GEE) to identify characteristics associated with student support for CO, intentions to use CO to refuse to care for someone seeking abortion, and support for CO at the institutional level. RESULTS 333 of the 413 eligible students who opened the survey, completed the questions on conscientious objection; 26% were seeking medical degrees with an ob-gyn specialty, 25% were seeking midwifery degrees, and 49% were seeking medical degrees and had not yet decided their specialty. While nearly all endorse requirements for conscientious objecting clinicians to inform (92%) and refer (91%) abortion-seeking patients, a minority (18%) would personally use conscientious objection to avoid caring for a patient seeking abortion (12% secular and 39% religious university students). About half of religious-university students (52%) and one-fifth of secular-university (20%) students support objections at the institutional level. CONCLUSIONS Most students support the regulated use of CO which preserves patients' access to abortion care. Religious-university student views on the use of conscientious objection in abortion care are discordant with those of their institutions which currently support institutional-level objections.
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Blackshaw BP, Rodger D. Questionable benefits and unavoidable personal beliefs: defending conscientious objection for abortion. JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ETHICS 2020; 46:178-182. [PMID: 31473656 DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2019-105566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2019] [Revised: 08/07/2019] [Accepted: 08/15/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Conscientious objection in healthcare has come under heavy criticism on two grounds recently, particularly regarding abortion provision. First, critics claim conscientious objection involves a refusal to provide a legal and beneficial procedure requested by a patient, denying them access to healthcare. Second, they argue the exercise of conscientious objection is based on unverifiable personal beliefs. These characteristics, it is claimed, disqualify conscientious objection in healthcare. Here, we defend conscientious objection in the context of abortion provision. We show that abortion has a dubitable claim to be medically beneficial, is rarely clinically indicated, and that conscientious objections should be accepted in these circumstances. We also show that reliance on personal beliefs is difficult to avoid if any form of objection is to be permitted, even if it is based on criteria such as the principles and values of the profession or the scope of professional practice.
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Moutel G, Suzat B, Grandazzi G. [Refusal of care, a discriminatory act?]. REVUE DE L'INFIRMIERE 2020; 69:27-28. [PMID: 32327056 DOI: 10.1016/j.revinf.2020.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
If a patient can refuse care, health professionals may refuse to treat a person, an act often considered discriminatory. Investigations have been carried out to shed light on this practice. This notion calls for a philosophical and ethical point of view.
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Wilkinson DJ. Positive or Negative? Consistency and Inconsistency in Claims of Conscience. THE JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ETHICS 2020; 31:143-145. [PMID: 32585658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
The debate about positive and negative claims of conscience is, in large part, about ethical consistency. In this commentary I argue that there can be differences between conscientious provision of treatment and conscientious nonprovision of treatment that are ethically relevant. However, in many cases, including those described in this commentary, there is not sufficient ethical reason to treat them differently. This means that asymmetrical conscientious objection policies are potentially unjustified.
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Brummett AL. Should Positive Claims of Conscience Receive the Same Protection as Negative Claims of Conscience? Clarifying the Asymmetry Debate. THE JOURNAL OF CLINICAL ETHICS 2020; 31:136-142. [PMID: 32585657] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
In the debate over clinicians' conscience, there is a greater ethical, legal, and scholarly focus on negative, rather than positive, claims of conscience. This asymmetry produces a seemingly unjustified double standard with respect to clinicians' conscience under the law. For example, a Roman Catholic physician working at a secular institution may refuse to provide physician-aid-in-dying on the basis of conscience, but a secular physician working at a Roman Catholic institution may not insist on providing physician-aid-in-dying on the basis of conscience. This article outlines arguments against this asymmetry and critiques them for failing to distinguish between positive claims of conscience as positive or negative rights. I suggest the asymmetry debate should be focused on whether positive claims of conscience as positive rights ought to enjoy the same protections as negative claims of conscience. Clarifying the debate in this way helps elucidate some of the best reasons for the asymmetry, which these arguments have not addressed. This article does not take a definitive position on whether the asymmetry is justified, but attempts to bring some focus to the debate by directing arguments against the asymmetry to address the significant differences between positive claims of conscience as positive rights and negative claims of conscience.
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Pilkington BC. Remember Evil: Remaining Assumptions In Autonomy-based Accounts Of Conscience Protection. JOURNAL OF BIOETHICAL INQUIRY 2019; 16:483-488. [PMID: 31792783 DOI: 10.1007/s11673-019-09949-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/14/2018] [Accepted: 10/30/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Discussions of the proper role of conscience and practitioner judgement within medicine have increased of late, and with good reason. The cost of allowing practitioners the space to exercise their best judgement and act according to their conscience is significant. Misuse of such protections carve out societal space in which abuse, discrimination, abandonment of patients, and simple malpractice might occur. These concerns are offered amid a backdrop of increased societal polarization and are about a profession (or set of professions) which has historically fought for such privileged space. There is a great deal that has been and might yet be said about these topics, but in this paper I aim to address one recent thread of this discussion: justification of conscience protection rooted in autonomy. In particular, I respond to an argument from Greenblum and Kasperbaur (2018) and clarify a critique I offered (2016) of an autonomy-based conscience protection argument which Greenblum and Kasperbaur seek to improve and defend. To this end, I briefly recap the central contention of that argument, briefly describe Greenblum and Kasperbaur's analysis of autonomy and of my critique, and correct what appears to be a mistake in interpretation of both my work and of autonomy-based defenses of conscience protection in general.
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Wischik M. Nazis, Teleology, and the Freedom of Conscience: In Response to Gamble and Pruski's 'Medical Acts and Conscientious Objection: What Can a Physician be Compelled to Do?'. New Bioeth 2019; 25:359-373. [PMID: 31702478 DOI: 10.1080/20502877.2019.1678914] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Medical practitioners of all specialisms (e.g. RN, MD) are identified by their professional titles. Their function is determined by their regulators, and subject to voluntary employment contracts. Whilst they are expected to act in their patients' best interests, there are situations in which a physician - having human rights - can object to certain acts. This right of objetction arises from the recognition of the practitioner's own conscience rather than the end or purpose of the procedure being performed. Gamble and Pruski explore an act-centred morality, and therefore define acts as medical (and subject to compulsion) and non-medical (therefore voluntary). This analysis has merit when applied to health-systems as a whole, but fails to take into account the humanity of physicians and the specific interactions with patients in different contexts. As such, it serves as a way of compelling physicians to act against their conscience rather than protecting them.
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