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Referral in the Wake of Conscientious Objection to Abortion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

Carolyn McLeod
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Abstract

Currently, the preferred accommodation for conscientious objection to abortion in medicine is to allow the objector to refuse to accede to the patient's request so long as the objector refers the patient to a physician who performs abortions. The referral part of this arrangement is controversial, however. Pro-life advocates claim that referrals make objectors complicit in the performance of acts that they, the objectors, find morally offensive. McLeod argues that the referral requirement is justifiable, although not in the way that people usually assume.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hypatia , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 30 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 by Hypatia, Inc.

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