Why Conscience Matters
A Defence of Conscientious Objection in Healthcare
1st Edition
Published on 29. July 2022
168 pages
978-1-000-61794-8 (ISBN)
Description
The book provides a detailed introduction to a major debate in bioethics, as well as a rigorous account of the role of conscience in professional decision-making.
Exploring the role of conscience in healthcare practice, this book offers fresh counterpoints to recent calls to ban or severely restrict conscience objection. It provides a detailed philosophical account of the nature and moral import of conscience, and defends a prima facie right to conscientious objection for healthcare professionals. The book also has relevance to broader debates about religious liberty and civil rights, such as debates about the rights and duties of persons and institutions who refuse services to clients on the basis of a religious objection. The book concludes with a discussion of how to regulate individual and institutional conscientious objection, and presents general principles for the accommodation of individual conscientious objectors in the healthcare system.
This book will be of value to students and scholars in the fields of moral philosophy, bioethics and health law.
Exploring the role of conscience in healthcare practice, this book offers fresh counterpoints to recent calls to ban or severely restrict conscience objection. It provides a detailed philosophical account of the nature and moral import of conscience, and defends a prima facie right to conscientious objection for healthcare professionals. The book also has relevance to broader debates about religious liberty and civil rights, such as debates about the rights and duties of persons and institutions who refuse services to clients on the basis of a religious objection. The book concludes with a discussion of how to regulate individual and institutional conscientious objection, and presents general principles for the accommodation of individual conscientious objectors in the healthcare system.
This book will be of value to students and scholars in the fields of moral philosophy, bioethics and health law.
Reviews / Votes
'Symons has made an important contribution to the debate on how to resolve disagreements regarding the provision of morally controversial but legally permissible medical interventions. This book is clear, careful, philosophically sound, insightful, and practical all at once. While it is unlikely to be persuasive to all, no one concerned about these issues will be able to ignore it.'Prof. Daniel Sulmasy, Director, Kennedy Institute for Ethics, Georgetown University, United States
More details
Series
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Reflowable
Illustrations
2 Line drawings, black and white; 2 Illustrations, black and white
ISBN-13
978-1-000-61794-8 (9781000617948)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
10/2023
1st Edition
Routledge
€63.10
Shipment within 10-20 days
Book
07/2022
1st Edition
Routledge
€205.90
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Xavier Symons, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Plunket Centre for Ethics, Australian Catholic University and St Vincent's Health Australia.
Content
1. Introduction: Conscience Revisited 2. Conscience Under Fire: A Critical Analysis of the Case Against Conscientious Objection in Healthcare 3. A Theory of Conscience Part I: Conscience and the Moral Life 4. A Theory of Conscience Part II: Virtue, Character and Conscientious Objection in Medical Practice 5. Making Space for the Exercise of Conscience in Healthcare 6. The Permissibility of Institutional Conscientious Objection 7. The Role of Conscience in Medical Practice and Professional Life
