Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2025
This sixth chapter explores issues surrounding collective acts of conscience. Specifically, it focuses on the issue of complicity as well as institutional conscience. Complicity in conscience is a frequent subject of discussion, as many conscience claims, such as referrals of treatment or supervision, rely on notions of complicity. However, complicity in conscience is significantly different from complicity in other areas of law and ethics, and there is insufficient exploration as to why. This chapter provides a firmer grounding for complicity. From there, the chapter moves to a discussion of institutional conscience. The chapter explores the reasons generally used in support of institutional conscience but argues that most do not survive scrutiny. Instead, it claims that institutional conscience does not provide any adequate protection for individual conscience and, instead, often overrides or limits it. It then provides reasons for an alternative view of how institutions ought to engage with conscience.
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