Conscience Protection

- Fr. Benjamin

In a previous post I talked about Obama's decision to overturn the ban on government funding for embryonic stem cell research. Even Americans who do not have ethical worries about such research should be worried that this is a shot against ethical limits in general. The ongoing advances in medical technology demand greater ethical limits, not fewer.

The Obama administration now wants to strip away conscience protections for healthcare professionals. Current laws prevent doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others from being forced to go against their conscience to perform procedures they find morally wrong, for example, to abort a child, euthanize a terminally ill patient, or prescribe contraceptives. Conscience protection is necessary because no one should force a doctor to do something he feels is wrong for the patient, whether that is the hospital, the government, or the patient himself.
Conscience protections allow and encourage those with strong morals and sensitive consciences to become doctors and nurses, knowing their job will respect their personal convictions. Aren't these the kind of people we want to be practicing in the medical field? We don't want doctors who do whatever they are asked as long as they get paid. Encouraging a high moral code might be inconvenient in the short term, as people's wishes might conflict with their nurse's convictions, but in the long term it will serve to make the medical profession more human and less of a profit oriented machine.

I am disappointed that our conservative voices, who rail against government interference in business, are quiet about government interference in a far more sacred sphere. Liberal voices who worry about freedom of expression don't care about freedom of conscience except when it pertains to freedom to dissent from religious teachings. Are we going to let this happen without saying anything? For more information look at the US Bishop's web site and please sign petitions against this move. The more we are silent, the more freedom we will lose!