Rights of Conscience, Moral Complicity and Free Speech

The title of the article might lead a reader to believe the authors support a physician’s right of conscience, but they do just the opposite. They strongly assert the will of the patient over the conscience of the physician. They write, “Making the patient paramount means offering and providing accepted medical interventions in accordance with patients’ reasoned decision,” and “Health care professionals who are unwilling to accept these limits [putting aside their own conscience to support patient autonomy] have two choices: select an area of medicine, such as radiology that will not put them in situations that conflict with their personal morality, or if there is no such areas, leave the profession.” While this quote would seem to apply to a broad variety of issues, in the context of the article the authors are referring to abortion.

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The Rights of the Religious

The Times rightly defends but wrongly interprets a federal law that forbids the government from imposing “substantial burdens” on the exercise of religious convictions and requires federal officials to pursue the “least restrictive means” of achieving any “compelling interest.”

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