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." . . . [Read
more]