A balanced proposal that protects both a patient's access to care and a physician's ability to refuse to provide certain services for reasons of conscience. Physicians in the United States who refuse to perform a variety of legally permissible medical services because of their own moral objections are often protected by “conscience clauses.” These laws, on the books in nearly every state since the legalization of abortion by Roe v. Wade, shield physicians and other health professionals from such potential consequences of refusal as liability and dismissal. While some praise conscience clauses as protecting important freedoms, opponents, concerned with patient access to care, argue that professional refusals should be tolerated only when they are based on valid medical grounds. In Conflicts of Conscience in Health Care, Holly Fernandez Lynch finds a way around the polarizing rhetoric associated with this issue by proposing a compromise that protects both a patient's access to care and a physician's ability to refuse. This focus on compromise is crucial, as new uses of medical technology expand the controversy beyond abortion and contraception to reach an increasing number of doctors and patients. Lynch argues that doctor-patient matching on the basis of personal moral values would eliminate, or at least minimize, many conflicts of conscience, and suggests that state licensing boards facilitate this goal. Licensing boards would be responsible for balancing the interests of doctors and patients by ensuring a sufficient number of willing physicians such that no physician's refusal leaves a patient entirely without access to desired medical services. This proposed solution, Lynch argues, accommodates patients' freedoms while leaving important room in the profession for individuals who find some of the capabilities of medical technology to be ethically objectionable.

Drawn from a two-day symposium at Santa Clara University, Conscience and Catholic Health Care provides a timely and up-to-date assessment of the Catholic understanding of conscience and how it relates to day-to-day issues in Catholic health care. The contributors explore a wide range of topics, including end-of-life care, abortion and sterilization, and the role of Catholic ethics particularly in hospital settings. With insights from key figures this book will serve as a useful text and reference for medical students and practitioners as well as a resource for ethics boards and chaplains in Catholic hospitals, most especially those merging with secular health institutions. In addition to the editors, contributors include Ron Hamel, Anne E. Patrick, Roberto Dell'Oro, Lisa Fullam, Kristin E. Heyer, John J. Paris, M. Patrick Moore, Jr., Cathleen Kaveny, Lawrence J. Nelson, Kevin T. FitzGerald, SJ, Gerald Coleman, Margaret R. McLean, Shawnee M. Daniels-Sykes, and Carol Taylor. (Publisher)

A leading historian chronicles the great contributions of the Catholic Church to hospital and health care in the U.S., with practical implications for today. The author sheds new light on medicine, religious pluralism, ethnicity, the Catholic Health Care Association and issues affecting church and health care today.

Historically associated with military service, conscientious objection has become a significant phenomenon in health care. Mark Wicclair offers a comprehensive ethical analysis of conscientious objection in three representative health care professions: medicine, nursing and pharmacy. He critically examines two extreme positions: the 'incompatibility thesis', that it is contrary to the professional obligations of practitioners to refuse provision of any service within the scope of their professional competence; and 'conscience absolutism', that they should be exempted from performing any action contrary to their conscience. He argues for a compromise approach that accommodates conscience-based refusals within the limits of specified ethical constraints. He also explores conscientious objection by students in each of the three professions, discusses conscience protection legislation and conscience-based refusals by pharmacies and hospitals, and analyzes several cases. His book is a valuable resource for scholars, professionals, trainees, students, and anyone interested in this increasingly important aspect of health care.

This book explores the critical role of law in protecting - and protecting against - religious beliefs in American health care.

Explores the multifaceted debate on the interconnection between conscientious objections, religious liberty, and the equality of women and sexual minorities.