1st Edition

Why Conscience Matters A Defence of Conscientious Objection in Healthcare

By Xavier Symons Copyright 2022
168 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

168 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

168 Pages 2 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

The book provides a detailed introduction to a major debate in bioethics, as well as a rigorous account of the role of conscience in professional decision-making. Exploring the role of conscience in healthcare practice, this book offers fresh counterpoints to recent calls to ban or severely restrict conscience objection. It provides a detailed philosophical account of the nature and moral... Read more

1. Introduction: Conscience Revisited 2. Conscience Under Fire: A Critical Analysis of the Case Against Conscientious Objection in Healthcare 3. A Theory of Conscience Part I: Conscience and the Moral Life 4. A Theory of Conscience Part II: Virtue, Character and Conscientious Objection in Medical Practice 5. Making Space for the Exercise of Conscience in Healthcare 6. The Permissibility of Institutional Conscientious Objection 7. The Role of Conscience in Medical Practice and Professional Life

Biography

Xavier Symons, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Plunket Centre for Ethics, Australian Catholic University and St Vincent’s Health Australia.

'Symons has made an important contribution to the debate on how to resolve disagreements regarding the provision of morally controversial but legally permissible medical interventions. This book is clear, careful, philosophically sound, insightful, and practical all at once. While it is unlikely to be persuasive to all, no one concerned about these issues will be able to ignore it.'

Prof. Daniel Sulmasy, Director, Kennedy Institute for Ethics, Georgetown University, United States