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Rethinking conscientious objection in health care /

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"The book provides an argument against a right to conscientious objection by healthcare professionals. In increasingly multicultural societies inspired by pluralism, and given the range of controversial medical procedures that are or will be legal in many countries, claims about healthcare prof...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Giubilini, Alberto (Author), Schüklenk, Udo (Author), Minerva, Francesca, 1981- (Author), Savulescu, Julian (Author)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2025]
Subjects:
Refusal to treat > Moral and ethical aspects.
Medical ethics.
Ethics.
MEDICAL.
Ethics & Moral Philosophy.
PHILOSOPHY.
Philosophy & Social Aspects.
SCIENCE.
Ethics & moral philosophy.
Society.
Electronic books.
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Cover
  • Half Title
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Contents
  • Introduction
  • Conscientious objection: the problem
  • Why today?
  • The stance taken by professional associations
  • Health care systems without accommodation of conscientious objection
  • Overview of the argument
  • 1 Conscience, Freedom of Conscience, and Conscientious Objection
  • Introduction
  • Accommodation of conscientious objection in health care is not a human right
  • What is conscience and what is its place in the sphere of public reason?
  • Freedom of conscience and consistency
  • The compromise option: questioning the 'easy solution' to conflicts of conscience
  • What are the ethical issues raised by conscientious objection in health care?
  • Moving forward
  • 2 The Argument against Conscientious Objection: On the Meaning and Ethical Relevance of Professionalism
  • Introduction
  • Medical professionalism
  • The incompatibility thesis: a contractualist defence
  • The contract and the professional-patient relationship
  • What is owed to patients? Three criteria for professional obligations
  • What if professional standards are wrong and my conscience is right?
  • A professional conscience
  • Conscientious beliefs and conflict of interests
  • Aren't we reducing highly skilled doctors to mere technicians?
  • Harmful consequences of accommodation of conscientious objection
  • Non-harm-related ethical reasons against conscientious objection: fairness and collective professional responsibility
  • Should a health care professional ever be allowed to conscientiously object?
  • Moving forward
  • 3 Defusing Arguments in Favour of Conscientious Objection
  • Introduction
  • The argument from reasonability
  • First problem: Should the health care profession be liberal and pluralist?
  • Second problem: What is reasonable?
  • Reasonability of conscientious objection
  • Two arguments against the reasonability view: a summary
  • State neutrality and reasonability
  • Compromise views
  • Degrees of complicity
  • Are degrees of complicity intrinsic to certain activities or context dependent?
  • Is being complicit what really matters?
  • Cooperation in wrongdoing and the moderate approach
  • Possible solution
  • The human rights argument
  • The argument from toleration
  • The argument from diversity
  • The argument from doctor's integrity
  • The argument from equality of opportunity
  • Moving forward
  • 4 Specific Cases
  • Introduction
  • Actionable and non-actionable values
  • Conscientious objection as an omission
  • Abortion
  • Medical assistance in dying
  • Cosmetic plastic surgery
  • Health care services for same-sex and transgender people
  • Gender reassignment therapies
  • In-vitro fertilization for same-sex couples
  • Cases of proxy consent
  • Proxy consent for interventions that benefit the incompetent patient