title: Are there different spheres of conscience?
abstract: Interest in understanding the meaning of conscience and conscientious objection in medicine has recently emerged in the academic literature. We would like to contribute to this debate in four ways: (1) to underscore and challenge the existing hierarchy of conscientious objection in health care; (2) to highlight the importance of considering the lay public when discussing the role of conscientious objection in medicine; (3) to critique the numerous proposals put forth in favour of implementing review boards to assess whether appeals to conscience are justifiable, reasonable and sincere; and (4) to introduce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Siracusa Principles into the dialogue around conscience and suggest that perhaps conscientious objection is a human right.
authors.affiliation: Collaborative Program in Bioethics, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Erica J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Sutton
authors.forename: Ross E G
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Upshur
mesh_terms: D044363:Contraception, Postcoital; D028744:Ethics Committees, Research; D005260:Female; D006806:Human Rights; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011634:Public Health; D016079:Refusal to Treat / Q000941:ethics*; D012068:Religion and Medicine