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2 results

  • 5 - Conscientious Provision and Objection

  • Stephen W. Smith, Cardiff University
  • Book:
    The Nature and Limitations of Conscience in Healthcare
    Published online:
    12 September 2025
    Print publication:
    02 October 2025, pp 82-109

  • Summary

    This fifth chapter explores the issue of conscientious provision and its role in the regulation of conscience. It first argues that conscientious provision ought to be protected in a similar manner to conscientious objection. It argues that it is problematic to fail to consider conscientious provision as worthy of protection. It then examines what the protection of conscientious provision might entail and what a model for its regulation would be. It tests this model in relation to the provision of an abortion in the United States after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org, et. al.

The Nature and Limitations of Conscience in Healthcare
  • Stephen W. Smith
  • Published online:
    12 September 2025
    Print publication:
    02 October 2025
  • The role of conscience in healthcare decision-making is explored in this important intervention in the fields of Health Law and Ethics, Medicine, Nursing and Philosophy. It takes a broad approach to conscience, looking beyond the standard examples of conscientious objection to argue that conscience permeates healthcare decisions. However, it also shows that not all decisions of conscience are worthy of legal or societal protection and that these are interests to be weighed rather than rights. Instead, conscience should be protected only when the individual exercising conscience abides by specific responsibilities. Additionally, the book explores the important issues of complicity with healthcare decisions and institutional or organisational conscience and argues they play an oversized role in general discussions of conscience. It further claims that we ought to pay much more attention to conscientious provision. The book concludes by looking at ways to more effectively regulate claims of conscience.