Is there room for freedom of conscience in medical practice?

Daniel P Sulmasy, John Lane

Is there room for freedom of conscience in medical practice?

Extract
I’m going to talk about conscience in general and about the principle of cooperation. Then you will hear from Dr. Lane about the current application of that in the current administration’s policies. . .

. . .What [conscience] really is, in some ways, is a commitment on our part. And there are two basic hinges, if you will, to the commitment that conscience is. The first is to have and to hold fundamental moral principles. That if you are to be a moral person to begin with, you have to commit yourself to having fundamental moral commitments. Then, secondly, once you have those, you commit yourself to acting in accordance with them. And that’s what in essence, conscience is.


Sulmasy DP, Lane J. ” Is there room for freedom of conscience in medical practice?” Paper presented at: That Nature that Urges Us to Care for Others Is the Heart. The American Association of Medicine and the Person Annual Meeting 2012 Oct 19-21; Florham Park NJ.