Zwischen personal beliefs und professional duties: Weltanschaulich-religiöser Pluralismus als neue Herausforderung für das ärztliche Gewissen

Conscientious objection in health care

“…At present conscientious objection in health care does not cover the two traditional issues namely abortion (which affects mainly physicians and nurses) and contraception (where beside physicians also pharmacists are involved) - (Anderson, 2006) only. There are many other issues that can raise conscientious objection; among them are the following: treatments in reproductive medicine such as gamete donation, in vitro fertilization, freezing of gametes or embryos, pre-implantation genetic diagnostics, assisted reproduction for lesbian and gay couples, surrogate motherhood, and professional participation in all those procedures (morally evaluated as cooperatio in malum), prisoner interrogation, capital punishment, treating drunk patients, genetic testing and counselling, sterilization, transgender treatment, end-of-life care (medical futility, withholding and withdrawing treatment, terminal sedation, terminal weaning, artificial nutrition and hydration, administrating extreme doses of opioids, overdosing by opiates, euthanasia, assisted suicide) (Campbell, Hare & Matthews, 1995;Schaupp, 2014;Rich, 2015).…”