John J Hardt
Extract
The difficulties lie in those cases in which there is disagreement about the ends of medicine and the obligations they impose on its practitioners. It may very well be the case that in focusing our attention on particular acts of conscientious objection, we will fail to attend to the underlying and more pressing need to engage once again in a conversation on the nature of medicine and its proper ends. . . . It is here, I would suggest, that one will find the root cause of much of our current, heated debate about conscience and, perhaps, some possible resolution.
Hardt JJ. The Necessity of Conscience and the Unspoken Ends of Medicine (Conscientious Objection and Emergency Contraception). Am J Bioeth. 2007;7(6):18-19.