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Conscientious Objection, Complicity in Wrongdoing, and a Not-So-Moderate Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2016

FRANCESCA MINERVA
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Abstract:

This article analyzes the problem of complicity in wrongdoing in the case of healthcare practitioners (and in particular Roman Catholic ones) who refuse to perform abortions, but who are nonetheless required to facilitate abortions by informing their patients about this option and by referring them to a willing colleague. Although this solution is widely supported in the literature and is also widely represented in much legislation, the argument here is that it fails to both (1) safeguard the well-being of the patients, and (2) protect the moral integrity of healthcare practitioners. Finally, the article proposes a new solution to this problem that is based on a desirable ratio of conscientious objectors to non-conscientious objectors in a hospital or in a given geographic area.

Keywords

conscientious objectionabortioncomplicitycooperation in wrongdoing
Type
Special Section: Conscientious Objection in Healthcare: Problems and Perspectives
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 2017 , pp. 109 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

Notes

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