{"id":13238,"date":"2008-03-01T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-01T23:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13238"},"modified":"2023-01-29T13:46:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-29T21:46:48","slug":"the-limits-of-conscience-moral-clashes-over-deeply-divisive-healthcare-procedures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13238","title":{"rendered":"The Limits of Conscience: Moral Clashes Over Deeply Divisive Healthcare Procedures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Robin Fretwell Wilson<\/h4>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"158\" height=\"230\" src=\"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/amjlawmed.jpg\" alt=\"American Journal of Law &amp; Medicine\" class=\"wp-image-15373\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">American Journal of Law &#038; Medicine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p> <strong>Extract<\/strong><br>Refusals by individual pharmacies and pharmacists to fill prescriptions for emergency contraceptives (&#8220;EC&#8221;) have dominated news headlines. . .These refusals. . .reflect moral and religious concerns about facilitating an act that would cut-off a potential human life.<br><br>Recently, conscience-based refusals have ballooned far beyond EC. Pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control, and other ancillary care professionals are asserting their own conscience concerns.<br> <br><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><br>Ultimately we must decide as a community whether we prize access more highly than religious freedom. The older healthcare conscience clauses offer us a range of methods to manage the clash between competing moral interests. If urgency for the service cannot be achieved through better information, state legislatures could make a number of choices. They could choose not to burden the professional&#8217;s choice at all\u2014prizing religious liberty more highly than access. They could force providers to provide every service legally requested\u2014prizing patient access more highly than moral or religious freedom. Or they could choose to allow individuals of conscience to exempt themselves up to the point that it creates a hardship for the patient or employer. In a pluralistic society, a live-and-let-live regime like this may be the most we can hope for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Wilson RF. <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1177\/009885880803400102\">The Limits of Conscience: Moral Clashes Over Deeply Divisive Healthcare Procedures<\/a>. Am J Law Med. 2008 Mar 01;34(1):41-63. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Robin Fretwell Wilson ExtractRefusals by individual pharmacies and pharmacists to fill prescriptions for emergency contraceptives (&#8220;EC&#8221;) have dominated news headlines. . .These refusals. . .reflect moral and religious concerns about facilitating an act that would cut-off a potential human life. Recently, conscience-based refusals have ballooned far beyond EC. Pharmacists are refusing to fill prescriptions for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/library.consciencelaws.org\/?p=13238\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Limits of Conscience: Moral Clashes Over Deeply Divisive Healthcare Procedures&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,554,2,559,64,825,720],"tags":[1670,90],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-13238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contraception","category-ethics","category-journal-article","category-law","category-morning-after-pill","category-pharmacy","category-religious-freedom","tag-ambulance","tag-robin-fretwell-wilson"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>The Limits of Conscience: Moral Clashes Over Deeply Divisive Healthcare Procedures - Protection of Conscience Project Library<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Perhaps allow conscientious exemption to the point of hardship for patients\/employers. 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