Category: Conscience Rights

Everywhere conscientious objection is under attack. Here’s one small victory. By Michael Cook Principled conscientious objection (CO) for health care workers is under threat from laws in several jurisdictions around the world. A number of prominent bioethicists have attacked the idea of refusing to participate in euthanasia or abortion as unethical. “A doctors’ conscience has …

By Michael Cook One of the most difficult issues in contemporary bioethics is “institutional freedom of conscience”. Should a healthcare facilities or nursing homes in a liberal democracy be permitted to eschew practices like abortion or assisted suicide and euthanasia? One of the strongest objections against legislation passed last week in the Australian state of …

By Jonathan Imbody    If you are a health professional who follows the Hippocratic oath’s proscription against abortion, should a government-funded hospital be allowed to coerce you to participate in abortions against your professional ethics and personal conscience? Nurse Cathy DeCarlo faced just such coercion, despite her agreement with a hospital that she would not …

By Bill Donohue In May 2019, President Donald Trump spoke from the Rose Garden about the conscience rights of healthcare workers. He addressed the final new rules that his administration posited, strictures, he said, that will protect “physicians, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, students and faith-based charities. Together, we are building a culture that cherishes the dignity …

By Dave Andrusko Pro-abortion President Biden is not going to allow his personal job approval rating—now at a feeble 33%—to get in the way of his ongoing service to the Abortion Industry. And that most assuredly includes “scrapping” the most personal protection—the right of conscience–for healthcare workers. Politico ran a story today under the headline …

By Michael Cook The latest abortion care guidelines from the World Health Organization severely criticise conscientious objection (CO) as a major obstacle to making abortion freely available. “Conscientious objection,” the WHO declared, “continues to operate as a barrier to access to quality abortion care … If it proves impossible to regulate conscientious objection in a …

Sign the Petition to Kelly Block MP in support of Bill C-230 OTTAWA, Ontario – Kelly Block, Member of Parliament for Carlton Trail – Eagle Creek, has tabled [introduced] a private members Bill C-230 to protect the conscience rights of medical professionals. “Over the past two years, we have seen just how important our health care …

By Michael Cook The election of Roberta Metsola as president of the European Parliament has revived a debate on its position on abortion. She is the youngest-ever President and the first person from Malta, the smallest member state, to lead an EU institution. But Malta is the only country in Europe which has a total …

By Michael Cook     The Spanish government is considering measures to restrict conscientious objection for doctors. An editorial in El Pais complains that “in recent years there have been growing signs of a counter-reformist reaction in social sectors that put their own intolerance ahead of other people’s legally protected freedoms, or even prioritize their nostalgia for …

By Wesley J. Smith Coercion is becoming ubiquitous in medicine. Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who oppose morally contentions medical procedures are increasingly being forced to choose between remaining in their professions and violating their deepest-held religious beliefs. Take the new “Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill of 2021” just passed in Queensland, Australia. The law authorizes doctors …

Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), James Lankford (R-OK), and Tom Cotton (R-AR), along with U.S. Representative Andy Harris (R-MD) and a group of 80 bicameral legislators, sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra demanding answers on why the Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped a …