Robert D Orr Archives - Protection of Conscience Project Library

Autonomy, conscience, and professional obligation

Robert D. Orr

American Medical Association Journal of Ethics

Extract
Health care professionals have a fiduciary relationship with their patients; i.e., because they have greater knowledge and authority than their patients, they have an obligation to be trustworthy and to serve patients’ best interests. This has been taught since the era of Hippocrates and continues in contemporary medicine, as stated, for example, in the American Medical Association’s Principles of Medical Ethics. . .

Orr RD. Autonomy, conscience, and professional obligation. Virtual Mentor. 2013;15(3):244-248. doi: 10.1001/virtualmentor.2013.15.3.msoc1-1303.

Autonomy, Conscience and Professional Obligation

Robert D Orr

Extract
While I earnestly support the right of conscience, I recognize that some individuals who articulate this stance have made invalid claims. . . .At the other end of the spectrum are those who assert that a physician who is unwilling to provide a legitimate service should no longer be licensed to practice medicine. Such a stance implies that the physician is merely a technician who either has no moral boundaries or is prohibited from exercising them.

Orr RD. Autonomy, Conscience and Professional Obligation. Virtual Mentor. Am Med Ass J Ethics 2013;15(3):244-248.

The physician’s right of refusal: What are the limits?

Robert D Orr

Abstract
A physician’s long-established right to refuse to provide a requested service based on his or her moral beliefs is being challenged. Some authors suggest that physicians should not be licensed if they are unwilling to provide all legal services. Others would grant them the right to refuse, but require them to refer to a willing professional. What are the limits of a physician’s right to refuse? When such a right is claimed on moral grounds, what residual obligations does the physician have to the patient? How should the profession (or society) decide when a moral claim to a right to refuse is justified?

Orr RD. The physician’s right of refusal: What are the limits? Christ Bioet. 2012;18(1):30-40.

The Role of Moral Complicity in Issues of Conscience (Conscience in Medicine)

Robert D Orr

Extract
At what point is an individual accountable for involvement in an action that he or she believes to be immoral? This subquestion is, I believe, important to both the religious and the non-religious individual in dealing with matters of personal or professional conscience. . . Lawrence and Curlin (2007) have stated it is important to have a basic understanding of what an individual means when he or she invokes this right of conscience. I believe it is equally important for those individuals, and for the public at large, to understand that there is a spectrum of belief about one’s moral complicity. Thus two people of faith may arrive at different conclusions about when it is appropriate to invoke this right. Such variation is fundamental to the concept of an individual’s conscience.

Orr RD. The Role of Moral Complicity in Issues of Conscience (Conscience in Medicine). Am J Bioeth. 2007;7(12).