A) Protection of conscience laws (PCL's)
ensure that people cannot be forced to facilitate practices or procedures to
which they object for reasons of conscience. These may include abortion,
capital punishment, contraception, sterilization, artificial reproduction,
euthanasia, assisted suicide, human experimentation, torture, etc. An
adequate protection of conscience law should protect conscientious objectors
from coercive hiring or employment practices, discrimination and other forms
of punishment or pressure. It should also include protection from civil
clauses are usually less comprehensive than protection of conscience laws
and afford varying degrees of protection for conscientious objectors. They
may appear in statutes or in the policies of organizations or institutions.
A) Protection of conscience laws and
conscience clauses are needed because powerful interests are inclined to
force health care workers and others to participate, directly or indirectly,
in morally controversial procedures. Physicians, nurses, pharmacists and
others have been denied employment, dismissed, or penalized because of
objections to abortion, contraception or the morning-after pill (See
Repression of Conscience). The same pressure will almost certainly be
applied to force conscientious objectors to participate in reproductive
technology, eugenic screening, and in euthanasia and assisted suicide,
particularly where such things are legal or are tolerated.
A) Those who refuse to do what
they believe to be wrong are defending their own integrity, not "imposing
beliefs." This is well understood in other contexts. For
example: people who refuse to help others cheat, steal or commit adultery
are not accused of "imposing their beliefs."
A) All beliefs are personal,
since one who believes something holds that belief "personally" or is
personally committed to that belief. Someone who refuses a bribe
because he believes bribery is wrong is acting on his beliefs. Health
care workers who suggest some forms of treatment or care rather than others
may also be acting on their beliefs. It is normal for people to act on
their beliefs, at the workplace or elsewhere.
A) Beliefs -and believers -
can be religious or non-religious. For example: people may believe in
the equality of all people for religious reasons, for for political,
ideological, or philosophical reasons. If one can reasonably act on a
non-religious belief, one can reasonably act on a religious belief.
There is no reason - apart from anti-religious bigotry - to prevent people
from acting on religious beliefs. [See
There are No Secular Unbelievers.]
A) That depends upon the wording of the law. A
statute can be drafted broadly so that it can be applied to any kind of
medical procedure. On the other hand, it can be written to include a class
of procedures (all those affecting life, for example). Finally, a law can
also identify specific procedures to which it is to apply. The Project website
includes examples of different kinds of legislative drafting.
A) Sometimes a law is drafted to respond to a
particular need or concern. For example: many American laws were drawn up in
direct response to the legalization of abortion by a U.S. Supreme Court
ruling about abortion. Hence, many of these laws concern only abortion.
Similarly, concerns with a certain class of
procedures (cloning and in vitro fertilization, euthanasia and assisted
suicide) may generate a law that has narrower application.
The broadest approach, which does not restrict protection
to specific procedures or classes of services, may result from a political
and social ethos that is respectful of freedom of conscience in principle.
It may also reflect an awareness that laws that are procedure-specific are
not sufficiently flexible to keep pace with changes in medical technology.
Finally, laws may be influenced by pragmatic
judgement about the political support likely to be available for different
kinds of legislation.
A) No. PCLs prevent people from being forced
to participate in medical procedures, but they do not make them illegal.
A) No.