Aborting our physicians' rights of conscience

Deseret News
30 January, 2011

Robert P. George*

In a report on the role of conscience in medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) discussed whether or not physicians should be allowed to follow their consciences in refusing to perform morally contested procedures like abortion. Perhaps most controversially, the report suggested that in some cases physicians should be compelled to perform abortions. Why is this problematic?

The ACOG Committee report is an exercise in moral philosophy. It proposes a definition of conscience, something that cannot be supplied by science or medicine. It then proposes to instruct its readers on "…the limits of conscientious refusals describing how claims of conscience should be weighed in the context of other values critical to the ethical provision of health care." . . . continue reading