The freedom of conscience of health providers (physicians, pharmacists, and institutions) has been consistently defended by United States law. In the last few years the freedom of these health providers to act in line with their conscience has been challenged by abortion advocates. The current United States administration wishes to weaken this freedom by reversing a recent ruling of the Department of Health and Human Services, which stipulated that institutions receiving federal funds must express their compliance with non-discrimination laws. A person's moral conscience makes practical judgments founded on binding objective moral norms. For this reason each person is bound to obey his conscience and should have the freedom to do so without discrimination. Physicians and other health-care providers should not be deprived of these legitimate rights.
NewmanJohn Henry“Letter to the Duke of Norfolk,” in idem, Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching, Vol. 2 (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1900), 247.
See American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine,” ACOG Committee Opinion Number 385, http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/ethics/co385.pdf (also found at Obstetrics & Gynecology 110 (2007): 1203-1208).
6.
See American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, “The Limits of Conscientious Refusal in Reproductive Medicine,” ACOG Committee Opinion Number 385, http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/ethics/co385.pdf (also found at Obstetrics & Gynecology, 5, recommendation n. 5.
MillJohn StuartOn Liberty, 4th ed. (Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1869), 27. See also ch. 1, 5-30.
9.
Department of Health and Human Services, 45 CFR, Part 88, “Ensuring that Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law; Final Rule,”Federal Register73.245 (December 19, 2008), http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-30134.htm.
10.
Department of Health and Human Services, 45 CFR, Part 88, “Ensuring that Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law; Final Rule,”Federal Register73, 78074.
11.
Department of Health and Human Services, 45 CFR, Part 88, “Ensuring that Department of Health and Human Services Funds Do Not Support Coercive or Discriminatory Policies or Practices in Violation of Federal Law; Final Rule,”Federal Register73, 78075.
See AppelJacob M.“May Doctors Refuse Infertility Treatments to Gay Patients?”Hastings Center Report36.4 (2006): 20–21.
15.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, trans. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994), nn. 1790-1794. The Catholic Church teaches that no one should act with a doubtful conscience (see CCC, n. 1787). Before acting, a person should overcome reasonable doubt.
16.
See Ramón García de Haro, Marriage and the Family in the Documents of the Magisterium, A Course in the Theology of Marriage, trans. MayWilliam E. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), 302–304. In the encyclical Humanae vitae, Pope Paul VI affirmed the need for obedience to the authority of the Church's Magisterium and referred to the same teaching by Popes Pius XI and Pius XII.
Dr. Edmund D. Pellegrino argues that patient's wishes cannot automatically trump the physician's competence, discretion, and moral obligations. See PellegrinoEdmund D., “Patient Autonomy and the Physician's Ethics,” in Annals CRMCC27.3 (April 1994): 171–173.
