CAM102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Conscientious Objector
Definition of Conscience
• Internal reasoning
• Internal voice
• Intuitive moral sense or feeling
• An intellectual activity
• Either 'religious' or 'secular'?
• The guardian of individual authenticity and integrity
• An excuse for discriminatory practice
• "A commitment to acting and choosing morally according to the best of one's ability"
• "The activity of judging that an act one has done or about which one is deliberating would
violate that commitment "
Role of Conscience in Healthcare
• It is traditionally, and still widely understood, that healthcare is a moral or ethical activity and
not merely a technical one
Conscientious Objection
• When a doctor refuses to provide, or participate in, a legally-recognised treatment or
procedure because it conflicts with his or her own personal beliefs and values, this constitutes
a 'conscientious objection'
• A conscientious objection is based on sincerely-held beliefs and moral concerns not self-
interest or discrimination
• A doctor should always provide
• Based upon deeply held moral convictions and not upon personal whim, aesthetics,
inconvenience or prejudice
• Focussed upon a type of procedure or service, and never upon a particular 'type' of patient or
client and therefore never a justification.
• An expression of the natural or basic human right to freedom of conscience
• However, freedom of conscience is not absolute
Patients May Have Conscientious Objections too..
Doctors cannot claim an absolue right to conscientoud fuck me she schanged the slide
Im gun leaf dat because its gold
Doctors have an obligation to place interests before their own personal interests
Any exercise of a 'right' to conscientious objection also involves a duty to 'do no harm' to patients
If you hols a CO:
• Inform your patient ASAP
• Inform your patient that they have the right to ohhhhhh fuck she changed it again
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