Professional Responsibility and Conscientious Objection

Conscientious objection is a controversial topic in society and medical ethics. The central issue in medicine is whether claims of conscientious objection allow medical professionals to refuse to perform tasks that would otherwise be their duty. To inform the ongoing discussion, this chapter reviews the opposing views on conscience in the philosophic literature that describe conscience as either a moral sense or the dictate of reason. Both views hold that conscience should be obeyed, and that keeping promises is a conscience-given moral imperative. The chapter then considers exemplars of conscientious objection—Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.—who were willing to bare the burdens of their convictions. It concludes by showing that doctors who put their own interests before their patients’ welfare violate their professional commitments and misappropriate the title “conscientious objector” because they are unwilling to bear the burdens of their choices while instead imposing burdens on patients and colleagues.