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The Creative Role of Virtue in Conscientious Objection: A Thomistic Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2025

Jaime Hernandez Ojeda Open the ORCID record for Jaime Hernandez Ojeda [Opens in a new window]
Jaime Hernandez Ojeda*
Affiliation:
School of Theology, Department of Moral Theology, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Italy
*
Email: jaheroj@gmail.com
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Abstract

Recent debates in moral philosophy have placed significant emphasis on personal conscience, often elevating individual autonomy above all other considerations. This overemphasis has paradoxically led to the suppression of another’s conscience in situations where two moral agents must act together toward a shared goal, as in the physician–patient relationship. Critics of conscientious objection argue that recognizing its legitimacy fosters moral relativism or subjectivism. How, then, can conscience be properly formed and understood in a way that safeguards against relativism while upholding its rightful role in conscientious objection? This article argues that Aquinas’s integration of natural moral law, conscience, prudence, and virtue offers the most coherent and original framework for addressing these challenges. By grounding conscience in truth and sustaining it through virtue, Aquinas provides a robust basis for defending conscientious objection while safeguarding human dignity and moral integrity. While primarily theoretical, this study also draws practical implications for healthcare and institutional ethics, showing how a Thomistic understanding of virtue and conscience can inform dialogue and policy in pluralistic contexts.

Keywords

conscienceconscientious objectionnatural lawprudencevirtue ethics

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New Blackfriars , First View , pp. 1 - 14
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers.

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References

1 Alberto Giubilini and Julian Savulescu, ‘Guest editorial: conscientious objection in healthcare: problems and perspectives’, Camb Q Healthc Ethics, 26 (2017), 3–5.

2 Daniel Sulmasy, The Healer’s Calling: A Spirituality for Physicians and Other Health Care Professionals (New York: Paulist Press, 1997). Mark Wicclair, Conscientious Objection in Health Care: An Ethical Analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). Edmund Pellegrino, ‘The Moral Foundations of the Patient-Physician Relationship’, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 18, 4 (1993), 371–379.

3 Cf. John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, n. 32–35.

4 Alberto Giubilini and Julian Savulescu, ‘Guest editorial: conscientious objection in healthcare: problems and perspectives’, Camb Q Healthc Ethics, 26 (2017), 3–5.

5 Rafael Navarro-Valls and Javier Martínez-Torrón J. Conflictos entre conciencia y ley, (Madrid: Iustel; 2011), pp. 35–72.

6 Alberto Giubilini, ‘The paradox of conscientious objection and the anemic concept of conscience: downplaying the role of moral integrity in health care’, Kennedy Inst Ethics J, 24 (2014), 59–185.

7 Cf. Thomas Aquimas, Summa Theologiae I, q.79, a.13; I–II, q.19, a.5. See also Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1995), pp. 27–335.

8 Cf. Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1995), pp. 327–335.

9 Giacomo S. Lodovici, La coscienza del bene: La voce etica interiore, le sue deroghe alle norme, l’imputabilità morale, l’obiezione alle leggi (Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2020), pp. 53–60

10 Julia Annas, The Moral of Happiness (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 186–219.

11 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, n. 1144a, pp. 25–30.

12 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate, q. 16; Summa Theologiae I, q.79, a.12–13; I–II, q.94, a.2. See also Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1995), pp. 327–330; Martin Rhonheimer, Practical Reason and the Foundations of Ethics (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000), pp. 75–85.

13 See Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, An Inquiry Concerning Virtue, or Merit (1699), II.i; David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, III.i.2, and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), I. For discussion of the moral sense tradition, see Stephen Darwall, The British Moralists and the Internal ‘Ought’ (Cambridge: CUP, 1995), chs. 4–5; Michael B. Gill, The British Moralists on Human Nature and the Birth of Secular Ethics (Cambridge: CUP, 2006).

14 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate q.17, a.1; Summa Theologiae I, q.79, a.13; I–II, q.19, a.5–6.

15 Leo J. Elders, The Ethics of St. Thomas Aquinas: Happiness, Natural Law and the Virtues (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), p. 84.

16 Reinhard Hütter, Bound for Beatitude: a Thomistic Study in Eschatology and Ethics (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2019), p. 169.

17 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II–II, q.47, a.2; II–II, q.47, a.4. See also Josef Pieper, The Four Cardinal Virtues (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1966), pp. 6–16; Romanus Cessario, Introduction to Moral Theology, 2nd ed. (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 2009), pp. 119–123.

18 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.12, a.1; q.13, a.1–6; q.15, a.1; q.19, a.5–6; II–II, q.47, a.8. See also Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1995), pp. 327–336; Martin Rhonheimer, Practical Reason and the Foundations of Ethics (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000), pp. 89–95.

19 Michel Labourdette, La prudence (Paris: Pierre Téqui, 1948), pp. 51–63; Benedikt Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I (Paris: Desclée, 1938), pp. 80–83.

20 Thimothy E. Quill, ‘Death and dignity. A case of individualized decision making’, The New England Journal of Medicine, 324, 10 (1991), 691–694; ‘The ambiguity of clinical intentions’, The New England Journal of Medicine, 329, 14 (1993), 1039–1040.

21 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II–II, q.47, a.2; a.8; q.49, a.3.

22 For Christians, prudence is also illuminated by grace and the gifts of the Spirit, especially counsel and wisdom, which elevate practical reason beyond what natural virtue alone can achieve. Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.68, a.1 and a.4; II–II, q.52, a.1; II–II, q.45, a.1. See also Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1995), pp. 367–373; Romanus Cessario, The Moral Virtues and Theological Ethics (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1991), pp. 192–198.

23 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.91, a.2–3; q.93, a.6; q.94, a.2.

24 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.91, a.3; I–II, q.91, a.2; q.93, a.5–6; q.94, a.2. For commentary, see John Finnis, Natural Law and Natural Rights, 2nd ed. (Oxford: OUP, 2011), pp. 23–27; Jean Porter, Nature as Reason: A Thomistic Theory of Natural Law (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), pp. 83–91; Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1995), pp. 379–386.

25 Aristotle, Physics II.1, 193b7–8. Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics, II, lect. 1, nn. 141–143.

26 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.91, a.2, ad 2.

27 John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (1993), §§31–34, 84.

28 Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1995), pp. 327–336, 354–361; Germain Grisez, Christian Moral Principles (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), pp. 179–185.

29 Reinhard Hütter, Conscience and Its Counterfeits: Pluralism, Prudence, and the Unity of Truth (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), pp. 29–35, 44–50, 73–79.

30 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.90, a.1–2; q.93, a.6; q.19, a.5–6; De Veritate, q.17, a.1.

31 John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (1993), §35.

32 Matthew Levering M, The Abuse of Conscience: A Century of Catholic Moral Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2021), p. 96.

33 Michel Labourdette, Les actes humains, vol. 2 of ‘Grand cours’ de théologie morale, trans. Abbaye Notre-Dame du Pesquié (Paris: Parole et Silence, 2016), p. 209.

34 John Haas, Crisis of Conscience (New York: Crossroad Pub. Co., 1996), pp. 59–75.

35 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I, q.79, a.13; I–II, q.19, a.5–6; q.93, a.6; De Veritate q.17, a.1–2.

36 Leo J. Elders, The Ethics of St. Thomas Aquinas: Happiness, Natural Law and the Virtues (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2003), p. 84.

37 Benedikt Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I (Paris: Desclée, 1938), pp. 72–74.

38 Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.109, a.1–2; q.68, a.1–2; II–II, q.52, a.1; II–II, q.45, a.1. See also John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor (1993), §64.

39 Joseph Ratzinger, On Conscience, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2007), p. 33.

40 Vatican II, Dignitatis Humanae (1965), §14.

41 Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae I–II, q.19, a.5–6; De Veritate q.17, a.4.

42 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.19, a.5–6; De Veritate q.17, a.4. See also Benedikt Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis, vol. I (Paris: Desclée, 1938), pp. 80–84.

43 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.19, a.5–6; De Veritate q.17, a.4. See also Michel Labourdette, Les actes humains, vol. 2 of ‘Grand cours’ de théologie morale*, trans. Abbaye Notre-Dame du Pesquié (Paris: Parole et Silence, 2016), pp. 208–210; Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1995), pp. 327–330.

44 Eric D’Arcy E, Conscience and Its Right to Freedom (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1961), p. 128.

45 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.57, a.4; II–II, q.47, a.3; I–II, q.19, a.5–6; De Veritate q.17, a.1. See also Servais Pinckaers, The Sources of Christian Ethics (Washington, D.C.: CUA Press, 1995), pp. 339–344; Matthew Levering, Conscience and the Common Good (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009), pp. 56–61.

46 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q.76, a.1–3; q.77, a.2; De Veritate q.17, a.3.

47 Cf. Aquinas, Summa Theologiae I–II, q. 63, a. 2.