Conscientious objection, harm reduction and abortion care

Fletcher, Ruth

doi:10.7228/manchester/9780719099465.003.0003

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 11 publications

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“…It does not take lunch hours or vacations” ( Durland, 2011 , 1659). Building on this idea, critics of ICO note that institutions cannot sustain moral injury in the same way that individual persons could if they were forced to participate in a practice that violates their deeply held moral beliefs ( Fletcher, 2016 ). Moral injury refers to the psychological distress resulting from actions, or the lack of them, which violate one’s moral or ethical code ( Litz, 2009 ).…”

Section: Argument One: Institutions Are Disanalogous To Individuals A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Arguments Against Institutional Conscientious Objection, and Why They Are (Metaphysically) Unconvincing

Symons,

Chua

2024

The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine

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The past decade has seen a burgeoning of scholarly interest in conscientious objection in healthcare. While the literature to date has focused primarily on individual healthcare practitioners who object to participation in morally controversial procedures, in this article we consider a different albeit related issue, namely, whether publicly funded healthcare institutions should be required to provide morally controversial services such as abortions, emergency contraception, voluntary sterilizations, and voluntary euthanasia. Substantive debates about institutional responsibility have remained largely at the level of first-order ethical debate over medical practices which institutions have refused to offer; in this article, we argue that more fundamental questions about the metaphysics of institutions provide a neglected avenue for understanding the basis of institutional conscientious objection. To do so, we articulate a metaphysical model of institutional conscience, and consider three well-known arguments for undermining institutional conscientious objection in light of this model. We show how our metaphysical analysis of institutions creates difficulties for justifying sanctions on institutions that conscientiously object. Thus, we argue, questions about the metaphysics of institutions are deserving of serious attention from both critics and defenders of institutional conscientious objection.

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Section: Argument One: Institutions Are Disanalogous To Individuals A...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Three Arguments Against Institutional Conscientious Objection, and Why They Are (Metaphysically) Unconvincing

Symons,

Chua

2024

The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine

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In Pursuit of a Balance: the Regulation of Conscience and Access to Sexual Reproductive Health Care

Uberoi

Galli²

2017

Hum Rights Rev

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The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013

Murray

2016

Social & Legal Studies

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Abortion is an issue that exposes deep divisions in Irish society and this was apparent during the debates on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. This introduced a framework regulating abortion into Irish law for the first time, but maintained the existing position where abortion is only available where the life of the woman is at risk. This article focuses on the centrality of suicide within the Irish discourse on abortion and the impact this had on the shape of the legislation ultimately introduced, in particular the inclusion of a more onerous process, which a woman must engage with before she can obtain an abortion where the risk to her life is from suicide. It highlights the practical consequences of this for the small number of very vulnerable women in Ireland who will be required to engage with the new statutory process which is deeply damaging. The 2013 Act reinforces the two-tier approach to healthcare that exists in Ireland in the specific context of reproductive healthcare as those with sufficient resources will be able to bypass the difficult and undignified statutory procedure and those who lack the socioeconomic capital will be compelled to remain.

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Conscientious objection, harm reduction and abortion care

Cited by 4 publications

References 11 publications

Three Arguments Against Institutional Conscientious Objection, and Why They Are (Metaphysically) Unconvincing

Three Arguments Against Institutional Conscientious Objection, and Why They Are (Metaphysically) Unconvincing

In Pursuit of a Balance: the Regulation of Conscience and Access to Sexual Reproductive Health Care

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013

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