Conscientious Objection in the Healing Professions: A Readers' Guide to the Ethical and Social Issues

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Members of professions are expected to use their education and skills while upholding standard practices, duties toward society and responsibilities toward those that they serve. (Professionalism. Ethics in Medicine, 1998). By one account, health professionals seek to advance patient welfare, to respect the decisions patients make and to act in ways that promote health fairly and without discrimination (Medical Professionalism in the New Millennium: A Physician Charter, 2002). However, members of the health professions in the United States increasingly reflect the diversity of the society at large. These individuals bring a variety of deeply held beliefs and values to the professions. Some of these professionals (nurses, doctors, pharmacists, students and others) will find themselves confronting conflicts between their deeply held moral or religious values and the expectations of their profession and patients. What is a health care provider to do when they find that their moral integrity is at odds with the professional expectations? Should a nurse with religious objections to assisted reproduction be asked to stop working in obstetrics and gynecology? Can a pharmacist with moral objections to emergency contraception refer a patient to a colleague without being complicit in a perceived moral wrong doing? Should religious organizations be required to provide or pay for objectionable health services? When, if ever, is a patient's health and well-being more important than a professional's moral integrity?

This information guide, "Conscientious objection in the healing professions: a guide to the ethical and social issues", does not attempt to answer these questions. If, however, you are a student, professional or simply an interested reader, this guide will help you identify key readings on the subject of conscientious objection in the healing professions. Here you will find a short overview of the topic, descriptive reviews of the scholarly literature on the ethical and legal issues surrounding conscientious objection, topical bibliographies, current updates from news sources, search strategies for finding more information, and links to related resources.

A bibliography that includes all references in this guide as well as more recent items is available as a Zotero library at: https://www.zotero.org/groups/conscientious_objection_in_the_healing_professions/

Chapters:

• Introduction: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/3863
• A short overview: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/3845
• General readings: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/3998
• Ethical analyses: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/3929
• Institutions: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4198
• Nurses: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4391
• Physician assistants: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4293
• Pharmacists: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4404
• Students: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4406
• Abortion and contraception: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4463
• Same sex relationships, medical care and reproductive medicine:http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4418
• Vaccination: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4419
• Use of animals in medical education: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4466
• End-of-life care: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4483
• Surveys and attitudinal research: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4225
• Court cases and legal analyses: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4511
• Collection scope and search strategies: http://hdl.handle.net/1805/4531

This guide is edited by Jere Odell with assistance from Rahul Abhyankar, Amber Malcolm, Avril Rua, and the IU Conscience Project.

Supported by a Carnegie-Whitney Grant from the American Library Association (2012-2014).