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Conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy

An analogy is sometimes drawn between the proper treatment of conscientious objectors in healthcare and in military contexts. In this paper, I consider an aspect of this analogy that has not, to my knowledge, been considered in debates about conscientious objection in healthcare. In the USA and else...

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Autor principal: Clarke, Steve
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5520003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27686995
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2016-103777
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author Clarke, Steve
author_facet Clarke, Steve
author_sort Clarke, Steve
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description An analogy is sometimes drawn between the proper treatment of conscientious objectors in healthcare and in military contexts. In this paper, I consider an aspect of this analogy that has not, to my knowledge, been considered in debates about conscientious objection in healthcare. In the USA and elsewhere, tribunals have been tasked with the responsibility of recommending particular forms of alternative service for conscientious objectors. Military conscripts who have a conscientious objection to active military service, and whose objections are deemed acceptable, are required either to serve the military in a non-combat role, or assigned some form of community service that does not contribute to the effectiveness of the military. I argue that consideration of the role that military tribunals have played in determining the appropriate form of alternative service for conscripts who are conscientious objectors can help us to understand how conscientious objectors in healthcare ought to be treated. Additionally, I show that it helps us to address the vexed issue of whether or not conscientious objectors who refuse to provide a service requested by a patient should be required to refer that patient to another healthcare professional.
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spelling pubmed-55200032017-07-31 Conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy Clarke, Steve J Med Ethics Paper An analogy is sometimes drawn between the proper treatment of conscientious objectors in healthcare and in military contexts. In this paper, I consider an aspect of this analogy that has not, to my knowledge, been considered in debates about conscientious objection in healthcare. In the USA and elsewhere, tribunals have been tasked with the responsibility of recommending particular forms of alternative service for conscientious objectors. Military conscripts who have a conscientious objection to active military service, and whose objections are deemed acceptable, are required either to serve the military in a non-combat role, or assigned some form of community service that does not contribute to the effectiveness of the military. I argue that consideration of the role that military tribunals have played in determining the appropriate form of alternative service for conscripts who are conscientious objectors can help us to understand how conscientious objectors in healthcare ought to be treated. Additionally, I show that it helps us to address the vexed issue of whether or not conscientious objectors who refuse to provide a service requested by a patient should be required to refer that patient to another healthcare professional. BMJ Publishing Group 2017-04 2016-09-29 /pmc/articles/PMC5520003/ /pubmed/27686995 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2016-103777 Text en Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/ This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
spellingShingle Paper
Clarke, Steve
Conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy
title Conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy
title_full Conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy
title_fullStr Conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy
title_full_unstemmed Conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy
title_short Conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy
title_sort conscientious objection in healthcare, referral and the military analogy
topic Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5520003/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27686995
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2016-103777
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