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Conflicts of Conscience in Health Care: An Institutional Compromise

Online ISBN:
9780262278720
Print ISBN:
9780262123051
Publisher:
The MIT Press
Book

Conflicts of Conscience in Health Care: An Institutional Compromise

Holly Fernandez Lynch
Holly Fernandez Lynch
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Published:
19 September 2008
Online ISBN:
9780262278720
Print ISBN:
9780262123051
Publisher:
The MIT Press

Abstract

Physicians in the United States who refuse to perform a variety of legally permissible medical services because of their own moral objections are often protected by “conscience clauses.” These laws, on the books in nearly every state since the legalization of abortion by Roe v. Wade, shield physicians and other health professionals from such potential consequences of refusal as liability and dismissal. While some praise conscience clauses as protecting important freedoms, opponents, concerned with patient access to care, argue that professional refusals should be tolerated only when they are based on valid medical grounds. This book finds a way around the polarizing rhetoric associated with this issue by proposing a compromise that protects both a patient’s access to care and a physician’s ability to refuse. This focus on compromise is crucial, as new uses of medical technology expand the controversy beyond abortion and contraception to reach an increasing number of doctors and patients. The author argues that doctor–patient matching on the basis of personal moral values would eliminate, or at least minimize, many conflicts of conscience, and suggests that state licensing boards facilitate this goal. Licensing boards would be responsible for balancing the interests of doctors and patients by ensuring a sufficient number of willing physicians such that no physician’s refusal left a patient entirely without access to desired medical services.

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