Background

Ethics of Freedom 

Ethical Issues in Current Practice

Resisting Ethical Aggression
 

ETHICAL ISSUES AND RELIGIOUS BELIEVERS

General

Judaism

Christianity (Catholic) ● (Non-Catholic)

Islam

Is Bioethics Ethical?
Wesley J. Smith
The Weekly Standard, 28 May, 2000
The author argues that control over public policy decisions in health care has been ceded to [secular] bioethicists, "an elite group of academics, philosophers, lawyers, and physicians, many of whom are openly hostile to the sanctity of life and the Hippocratic traditions that most people still take for granted." 

Although bioethicists are unregulated and unlicensed, adherents of a homogenous "ideology of mainstream bioethics" have gained increasing control of  public health administration and  medical ethics, and influence culture at all levels.  They have agreed among themselves that religious beliefs "have little place in the formulation of public policy", and some believe that theirs is "a new moral paradigm that will replace the archaic Judeo-Christian order as the philosophical underpinning of society." [For a perspective on this notion see There are no secular unbelievers] The result is that law and public policy are increasingly shaped by beliefs that are not shared by the people whom they affect.

Smith's  powerful critique closes with a call for greater media vigilance, public awareness and even "a counter-bioethics movement" to vigorously engage and contain the spread of an ideology he believes is "directing us down immoral and dangerous paths."

When We Were Philosopher Kings
Ruth Shalit
The New Republic, April 28, 1997
The article focuses on the activities of individual ethics consultants working within the U.S. framework of private medical coverage, but the concerns it raises are equally valid with respect to socialized medicine and ethics committee systems. Indeed: the activities and impact of ethical experts may be more problematic when they operate as unseen advisors to policy makers in state bureaucracies, and a committee decision may be more difficult to challenge than that of a single consultant.

There Are No Secular Unbelievers
Iain T. Benson
Executive Director, Centre for Cultural Renewal
A popular summary of an article published in the University of British Columbia Law Review (Iain T.Benson,   "Notes Towards a (Re) Definition of the "Secular" [2000] 33 U.B.C. Law Rev. 519 - 549, Special Issue: "Religion, Morality, and Law.").  Mr. Benson draws attention to the erroneous notion that "secular" means "faith-free".   He argues that this error is transmitted through the culture and imposed by the courts, thus allowing the "implicit faith" of atheists and agnostics to dominate and displace all others.  "Why," he asks, "should the opinions of those who don't know or refuse to articulate what they believe dominate those who can say what they believe in and why they think it matters?"

Which Medical Ethics for the 21st Century?
Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.  May 14, 1999
What will be the basis for 21st century decisions about euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, test-tube babies, cloning and stem cell research, etc.?  "Perhaps it is time," writes Dr. Irvine, " to stop and seriously reconsider which medical ethics should be used as the basis of these choices - while we still can!"

The author examines two different theories of medical ethics, "pointing out briefly what they are, comparing their conclusions about what is right or wrong, and indicating where they have already lead us. . ."

Are "Values" the Same as Virtues?
Iain T. Benson
Executive Director, Centre for Cultural Renewal
When professional codes of conduct allude to 'personal values', and workplace controversies about issues of conscience are characterized as 'conflicts of values", it is past time to ask what meaning is conveyed by such terms.  The author holds that values language "obscures moral discourse rather than furthers it."  His short article serves as a suitable introduction to the subject.

Handling Issues of Conscience
J. Budziszewski, Ph.D
Associate Professor, Departments of Government and Political Philosophy, University of Texas (Austin), U.S.A.
Professor Budziszewski tackles the problem of conflicts of conscience that arise in teaching "those sensitive subjects where the conscientious convictions of different students, or of students and teachers, are likely to come into conflict."

Science, the Formation of Conscience and Moral Decision Making
Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.  28 October, 1999
The author points out that knowing correct scientific information is preliminary to moral decision making by the patient, the physician and a multitude of others.  She argues that any scientific error in the beginning  precludes one from making morally correct decisions in the end.  The author writes from a Catholic perspective, but her approach to the subject may be adopted without difficulty by non-Catholics.  The paper was written for a mixed audience of 'average citizens' and specialists in academic disciplines.  The text is accessible to the non-specialist, while the extensive end notes  meet the exacting requirements of academic discussion.

Establishment Bioethics
Sean Murphy
Administrator, Protection of Conscience Project
Ethical differences between one theory of bioethics and another may be quite as dramatic as doctrinal differences between religions, though, like religions, there are also similarities.  Problems for ethical minorities arise when one version of bioethics becomes predominant, and its practitioners attain positions of influence and power in government, academic and professional circles.

The Bioethics Mess
Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.
Crisis Magazine, May 2001
"Bioethics" -- the word sounds like old-fashioned medical ethics applied to new medical technology. It's the application of traditional philosophical or theological principles to the moral dilemmas created by, say, cloning or experimenting with new AIDS drugs, right? Not really.

Making Room for All in the Public Square
Sue Careless, Toronto Freelance Writer
Globally, religion is gaining clout, and the way we order our lives together politically is once again being forced to take into account the spiritual.

So argued many of the speakers at a "Pluralism, Religion, and Public Policy" conference held Oct. 9-11 at McGill University. Citizens, they said, should not have to check their deepest beliefs at the vestibule before entering the public square.

The Impact of International Bioethics on the Sanctity of Life Ethics
and the Ability of Ob Gyn's to Practise According to Conscience
Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D. (Rome, 2001)
. . . the key to understanding any philosophical or theological ethical theory is to identify its philosophical or theological "anthropology"-- or definition of "a human being" or "person". Different anthropologies lead to different ethical theories. Some anthropologies match reality; others don't. Bioethics tries to claim that its theory really has no "anthropology", i.e., the "personhood" issue. Bioethics is "just" about "ethics". However, almost all bioethics arguments do incorporate a "delayed personhood" claim, whether or not they know or admit it --

The Illusion of Moral Neutrality - Part IV
by J. Budziszewski Professor, Departments of Government and Philosophy, University of Texas (Austin), U.S.A.
First Things 35 (August/September 1993): 32-37
The author discusses the false dichotomy of 'religious' and 'secular', directing attention to the fact that everyone, religious or not, abides by some "practice of ultimate concern that orders all other concerns, unconditioned loyalty that trumps all other loyalties."   Understanding this concept is critical if one hopes to respond to the absolutist claims of those who would banish from public life all but what they call 'secular' ethics.

Medicine's Intrinsic Good
by Teresa Iglesias
What is good medicine? Who counts as a good doctor? These are very large questions that cannot be fully addressed here. I want to focus on a basic aspect of these two questions and on the ethical idea of “the good.”

Scientific and Philosophical Expertise: An Evaluation of the Arguments on "Personhood"
Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.
Linacre Quarterly February 1993, 60:1:18-46 [Edited, September 20, 1996]
The aim of this paper is to debunk these current myths concerning the relativism of what a human being or a human person is, and to at least raise the question at the end of how these "myths" came about even at the level of scientific and philosophical professional "expertise".  What I will argue is that we can and do have an objective and empirically-based definition of a human being and a human person, and that, other than conceptually, one cannot really split a human being from a human person.

What Does it Mean to be Human?
by Teresa Iglesias, D.Phil
Fellow of The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
University Lecturer in Philosophy and Medical Ethics at University College, Dublin, Ireland
One of the most fundamental questions that is increasingly facing bioethicists and society alike is the question, "What does it mean to be human?" "In what consists the act of being human?" "Is my humanity a 'bodily' humanity?" In every area of philosophical concern we are always thrown back to these basic questions.

What is Natural Law and What is its Bearing on Obstetrics and Gynaecology?
Eamon O'Dwyer LL.B, F.R.C.P.I., F.R.C.O.G.
Professor (emeritus) of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, National University of Ireland, Galway
. . . Natural Law is rooted in history. To understand it fully and to appreciate its significance, it is necessary to trace its development from its origin in ancient Greek philosophy. . .

The Need to Accommodate Conscience and Religion
Presented to the BC College of Pharmacists by pharmacist Cristina Alarcon
I would like to address today what I see as a great flaw in our current code of ethics – the failure to provide for the accommodation of conscience and religion. Before I develop this however, I would like to touch on the international recognition of the dignity of the individual because such dignity is for all people whether, in our context, patients seeking medical services broadly construed, or those who provide them whether medical services personnel or pharmacists. . .

Christian Medical Association's Presentation to President's Council on Bioethics
. . . Because the way things are going, some would actually force out of the profession those physicians who have moral objections to procedures such as abortion. And that loss of physicians--especially Obstetricians and Gynecologists who are already leaving because of malpractice insurance costs--would have a severe impact on the delivery of healthcare. 

Is American Bioethics Lost in the Woods?
Michael Cook, BioEdge - Australasian Bioethics Information
The debate between a libertarian bioethicist and a communitarian bioethicist illustrates why American bioethics is becoming increasingly marginalised and irrelevant to the democratic society that it intends to serve . . .
 

A Better Concept of Freedom
by George Weigel
Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
. . . Isaiah Berlin thus deserves considerable credit for identifying the perversion of liberty that was at the root of the totalitarian project, and for defending a concept of liberty–as–noninterference that, in setting legal limits to coercive state power, has deep resonances in the American political tradition. And yet, forty–four years after “Two Concepts of Liberty,” one has to ask whether Berlin’s analysis of the problem of freedom is truly adequate. . . .
 

Psychologists and Abusive Interrogations: Acting on Conscience
Dr. Mary Pipher
. . . For the past few years, I have been troubled by various media and Department of Defense reports that psychologists have designed protocols and trained and supervised interrogators in the use of sophisticated methods for breaking the human spirit and destroying mental functioning . . .

ABORTION: Where do we draw the line?
Margaret Somerville
Samuel Gale Professor of Law, professor in the Faculty of Medicine, and founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University.
The conferral of an honorary degree on Dr. Henry Morgentaler provided a flashpoint for yet another explosion in the long-standing, deeply acrimonious war as to the values that should govern abortion. The two polar positions are well defined, but I want to speak for those, like me, who regard all abortion as raising serious ethical issues, but who would not legally prohibit early abortion . . .

Criminalising Christian behaviour - legally enforced political correctness
Peter Saunders
Triple Helix, Autumn, 2005 Christian Medical Fellowship (United Kingdom)
This edition of Triple Helix highlights three possible changes in British Law that could lead to Christians receiving criminal convictions . . .

Imposing our morality
Dionysius Dialogues - Morality [2]  
Nucleus, April, 1994 Christian Medical Fellowship (United Kingdom)
Dionysius: Well, for a start, we can't refuse to diagnose and treat them just because they are sinners.We wouldn't see anybody. Where could we draw the line? Nitpickerus: It's not that which worries me. It's when they want us to help them do something which we regard as unethical  Dionysius: Let's have a real example. Nitpickerus: OK. A man wants you to write a doctor's certificate so he can be compensated for the time he's taken off work but you have good reason to believe he's been malingering. Do you write the certificate?

Contraception for the Unmarried
Nucleus, January, 1996 Christian Medical Fellowship (United Kingdom)
. . .I came to the conclusion that I could only provide contraception to married couples, and that my contraceptive advice to unmarried couples would be limited to that of advising them not to have intercourse. I would advise them that if they rejected my advice they should go elsewhere and obtain their contraception from another doctor. I was not forcing my opinion on them, because they were perfectly free to reject my advice and obtain their contraception elsewhere.

Service or Servitude: Reflections on Freedom of Conscience for Health Care Workers
Sean Murphy
Administrator, Protection of Conscience Project
Responding to: Cantor J, Baum K. The Limits of Conscientious Objection - May Pharmacists Refuse to Fill Prescriptions for Emergency Contraception? N Eng J Med 351;19, November 4, 2004

The Silence of Good People and Non-cooperation with Evil: A Response to Prof. R. Alta Charo
Sean Murphy
Administrator, Protection of Conscience Project
Responding to: Charo, RA. The Celestial Fire of Conscience- Refusing to Deliver Medical Care. N Eng J Med 352:24, June 16, 2005

BLOG on the Reading Down of Conscience Protection
Ian T. Benson
Executive Director, Centre for Cultural Renewal
Responding to: R. Alta Charo, J.D., The Celestial Fire of Conscience — Refusing to Deliver Medical Care N Eng J Med 352:2471-2473; 24, June 16, 2005

Silencing the Conscience of Medical Professionals
John Mallon
Contributing editor for Inside the Vatican magazine
What are the limits of conscience? Can there be any limits on conscience? Professor R. Alta Charo, who teaches law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin Law and Medical Schools in Madison, thinks there should be, and that the law should require health care professionals to violate their consciences in certain cases . . .

'Bioethics' -- What It Really Means for Prolife Nurses
Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D.
Presentation to the National Association of Pro-life Nurses Annual Meeting, Hyatt Regency in Crystal City, Washington, D.C.,  July 2, 2004
". . .When you find yourself in a situation where you and your deepest gut instincts are so pitted against some “theory” – any “theory” – then perhaps it is time to stop and to question this “theory”? The specific “theory” in question here is not really “ethics”, but, I would suggest -- “bioethics”."

Tube Feeding: Medical Treatment or Basic Care?
Adrian Treloar
Consultant and Senior Lecturer In Old Age Psychiatry at the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospitals and Bexley Hospital Kent DAS 2BW

Philip Howard
Consultant Gastroenterologist and Senior Lecturer In Medicine at St. George's Hospital Medical School, Blackshaw Road, Tooting, London SW19 ORE
The authors argue that feeding tube placement is a medical procedure and as such requires consideration of the benefits and risks as for any other medical treatment. However, the day-to-day use of feeding tubes, to provide hydration and nutrition, constitutes ordinary care that does not require medical supervision. Withdrawal of tube feeding raises major ethical and legal questions.

Referral: A False Compromise
Sean Murphy
Administrator, Protection of Conscience Project
The notion that referral is an acceptable compromise may presume that moral culpability attaches only to direct participation in X, and not to facilitating the provision of X by someone else. This presumption contradicts important religious and moral traditions that hold that we may be morally responsible for the actions of someone else.

Customer Isn't Always Right on Issues of Conscience
Susan Martinuk
The Province,  June 13, 2001
The author introduces the new course for health care workers in the 21st century - "Sticky Issues 101" - by considering conflicts of conscience in pharmacy.  Susan Martinuk, a former Ph.D student in reproductive technology, is a Vancouver-based columnist and speaker on biomedical and ethical issues.

Bioethics Faculty a Trailblazer in Academia
An interview with the rector  of the Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum concerning the inauguration of the world's first faculty of bioethics.

Conscientious Objectors: Canaries in the Ethical Mineshaft
Maria Bizecki, B.S.P.,
Concerned Pharmacists for Conscience
Lay Witness Magazine, June/July 2001
The author, who has direct experience in her subject, discusses the pressures faced by people whose moral convictions expose them to discrimination and coercion in the workplace in order to explain the need for protection of conscience laws.

Freedom of Conscience and the Needs of the Patient
Sean Murphy
Administrator, Protection of Conscience Project
Paper delivered 11 November, 2001 at Obstetrics and Gynaecology conference New Developments - New Boundaries, Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Consensus Guidelines on Analgesia and Sedation in Dying Intensive Care Unit Patients(Research Paper)
Laura A Hawryluck, William RC Harvey, Louise Lemieux-Charles and Peter A Singer. 
Intensivists must provide enough analgesia and sedation to ensure dying patients receive good palliative care. However, if it is perceived that too much is given, they risk prosecution for committing euthanasia. The goal of this study is to develop consensus guidelines on analgesia and sedation in dying intensive care unit patients that help distinguish palliative care from euthanasia.

Report Prompts Protocols for Diagnosis of Brain Death
Wang MY, Wallace P, Gruen JP. Department of Neurological Surgery, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
After reviewing the 78 brain deaths documented at the hospital in 1999, J. Peter Gruen, MD, and colleagues at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, discovered that the diagnosis was highly variable and concluded that standards for practice and documentation were sorely needed

New Genetics Functions as Eugenics
Margaret Somerville.  Samuel Gale Professor of Law and Professor in the Faculty of Medicine McGill University's Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law. 
The author argues that "[o]ne effect of intense individualism in the context of reprogenetics is that the accumulation of individual decisions are resulting in an overall outcome that would never be acceptable as public policy. In short, the new genetics is functioning as eugenics, but that fact is not identified."

Interview:  Seeking an Ever Clearer Conscience
A. Cyrenian
How a Catholic pharmacist followed his convictions and stopped dispensing contraception.

Assisted Suicide:  What Role for Nurses?
Carrie Farella, RN, MA, (Nursing Spectrum corporate writer)
Nursing Spectrum Magazine, 15 May, 2000
“Initially, when [Oregon's assisted suicide law] was designed, the assumption was that physicians would be the first ones to explore PAS with patients,” says Pam Matthews, RN, BSN, administrator for Evergreen Hospice, Albany, OR, “but in reality, nurses are usually the ones in the line of fire. Patients often feel nurses understand their wishes for good quality of life and good quality of death, too.”

Rounding the Horn with the Principle of Double Effect
Sean Murphy, Administrator, Protection of Conscience Project
. . . The audience finds British Captain Jack (Lucky Jack) Aubrey and the crew of his man o’war on the north coast of Brazil, hunting the French privateer Acheron. The film follows the hunt down the east coast of South America, around Cape Horn and into the Pacific. . .

Compulsory Vaccination
Dave Stevens, MD, CEO, Christian Medical and Dental Associations (USA)
"I spent a lot of time learning about immunization practices while a missionary in Africa. I had an isolation ward full of children with measles complications and a quarter of them died in the hospital. . . It is clear to me that Steve LeBlanc's, the author of this article, comments are less about immunizations and more about right of conscience. . . .

Personal Beliefs and Professional Duties: Maintaining Your Integrity
Dr. Larry Reynolds, Professor of Family Medicine,University of Manitoba, Canada
In modern heath care the role of the physician is at risk of being reduced to becoming a mere tool of the patient’s will. The doctor’s role will be just to provide services that patients demand. Autonomy of the patient trumps all. This view impoverishes our profession, degrades doctors to mere technicians and will accelerate the moral wasting disease presently plaguing Canadian health care. . .

Healthcare without Conscience—Unconscionable!
Gene Rudd MD, Senior Vice President, Christian Medical & Dental Associations
The governor of Illinois has told pharmacists to check their conscience at the door. They are not to allow their personal convictions to alter their professional activities. Specifically, pharmacies are to fill all legal prescriptions, even if doing so is contrary to deeply held moral or religious beliefs of the pharmacists. . .

Re: "Abortion: Ensuring Access"
In July,2006, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published a guest editorial by Sanda Rodgers of the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, and Jocelyn Downie, of the Health Law Institute, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The editorial appears to have been an attempt to bully objecting physicians who refuse to refer patients for abortion by menacing assertions about legal and ethical obligations.  The CMAJ is a publication of the Canadian Medical Association, which, however, asserts that its contents do not necessarily represent the views of the Association.

•  Protection of Conscience Project:  The CMAJ did not publish the Project's response to the guest editorial.
• Leong, Moral Desensitization
• Leiva, Balanced Journalism Needed
• Genuis, Physician Autonomy and the Ethics of Intolerance
• Johnston, Abortion Access Editorial Worrisome
• Ney, Re: Abortion-Ensuring Access
• Ferrier, Response to Abortion-Ensuring Access

RE:  “Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code”

• Protection of Conscience Project Submission to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario
  Re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code (11 September, 2008)
• Centre for Cultural Renewal:  A Principled Approach to Respecting the Rights of Physicians and Patients
• Ontario Medical Association: Response to CPSO Draft Policy Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code

  • “The OMA Responds.” National Post, 17 September, 2008

• Canadian Physicians for Life:  Interim response to Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code
• Canadian Physicians for Life:  Submission to the CPSO Re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code
• Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform: Re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code
• Catholic Archbishop of Toronto Re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code
• Catholic Civil Rights League: Re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code
• Catholic Organization for Life and Family Submission re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code
• Chalcedon Foundation: Canadian Doctors Warned to "Set Aside" God's Law
• Christian Legal Fellowship: Submission re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code
• Fr. Raymond De Souza, "Human Rights" vs. Basic Freedoms
• Dr. T.E. Lau Re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code
• Dr. Margaret Somerville, "Denying doctors free conscience unconscionable"
• John W. Veldkamp: Re: Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights Code

RE:   American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists continues attacks on freedom of conscience

• Presidents Council on Bioethics: Session 7: Public Comments
   
• Joint Letter of Protest (Christian Medical Association et al)
   
• Critique of ACOG Committee Opinion #385 (Christian Medical & Dental Associations)
   
• Response to the ACOG Ethics Committee Opinion # 385 (American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians & Gynecologists)
   
• Letter of Protest from the Catholic Medical Association (USA)
   
• American Health and Human Services Secretary Calls on Certification Group to Protect Conscience Rights
   
• Responses from individual physicians

• Abortion and Halacha

• The Role of the Physician in Jewish Law
  Futility of Treatment

• Halachic Issues Regarding Futility of Medical Treatment:
  Application to Nutrition and Hydration in the Terminally Ill Patient

• The Ethics of Cloning

• Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction in Jewish Law

• The Sanctity of the Human Body

• Artificial Insemination in Jewish Law

Rabbi Asher Lipner
Doctoral Student in Clinical Psychology, Adelphi University, New York
National Community Co-Lecturer, Institute for Jewish Medical Ethics

• Of Life and Death:  A Jewish Response to Doctor Assisted Suicide

Yaakov Neeman, Adv.
Minister of Finance, State of Israel
Advisor, Legal Affairs, Institute for Jewish Medical Ethics

• Be'tzelem Elhohim - In God's Image:  Euthanasia - The Approach of the Courts in Israel and the Application of Jewish Law Principles

Avraham Steinberg, M.D.
Director, Center for Medical Ethics Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jersualem

• Human Cloning - Scientific, Moral and Jewish Perspectives

ENCYCLICALS
Evangelium Vitae - The Gospel of Life (Pope John Paul II, 25 March, 1995: Extracts concerning conflict between law of the state and conscience)

OTHER PAPAL STATEMENTS
Address to the Participants to the International Congress "Life-Sustaining Treatments and Vegetative State: Scientific Advances and Ethical Dilemmas (Pope John Paul II, 20 March, 2004)

DOCTRINAL NOTES
Doctrinal Note on some questions regarding the participation of Catholics in political life (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) 24 November, 2002

Responses to Certain Questions of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Concerning Artificial Nutrition and Hydration (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) 1 August, 2007

MORAL REFLECTIONS
Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Foetuses  (Pontifical Academy for Life, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  6 July, 2005)

Statement on the So-Called 'Morning After Pill' (Pontifical Academy for Life)

PASTORAL DIRECTIVES
Charter for Health Care Workers  (Pontifical Council for Pastoral Assistance)

Statement on the Formation of Conscience (Canadian Catholic Conference)

EPISCOPAL STATEMENTS
Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (USA)

New York State Catholic Conference (USA)

Statement of the Ugandan Bishops on the 'Morning After Pill'

Strategy to Abolish Right of Conscience (Archbishop of Seattle, Washington, USA)

United States Catholic Conference Re: Kansas Health Care Providers Rights of Conscience Act

Conscience Clauses and the Challenge of Co-operation in a Pluralistic Society (California Catholic Conference, USA)

Religion, reason, voting (Francis Cardinal George, Chicago, USA)

Freedom of Conscience: A Pastoral Statement from the Bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference

The moral conscience in ethics and the contemporary crisis of authority (Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher, Sydney, Australia)

Conscience: the Aboriginal Vicar of Christ (George Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia)

THE HOLY SEE
Presentation of Permanent Observer of the Holy See to UN General Assembly Committee

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The Catechism provides succinct statements of Catholic teaching.

CATHOLIC COMMENTARY

Commentary from other sources is a reliable guide to Catholic teaching only to the extent that it conforms to the teaching of the magisterium of Pope and bishops in union with him.

John Paul II: A Middle Path Which Opens Up Before Catholic Health Workers

The Fundamental Human Right to Practise and be Trained According to Conscience

Institutional Formal and Material  Co-operation (with evil)

Rights, the Person and Conscience in the Catechism

Freedom to Choose God

Catholic Health Association Supports Medically Appropriate, Morally Acceptable Care for Sexual Assault Victims

Catholic Health Care Providers and the Issue of Emergency Contraception: Offering Compassion and Truth in Cases of Rape and Sexual Assault

Choosing between good and evil

The Role of the Christian Conscience in the Promotion of Life in Relation to Developing Countries

Conscience

CHRISTIAN MEDICAL & DENTAL ASSOCIATIONS
"The Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) are made up of the Christian Medical Association (CMA) and the Christian Dental Association (CDA). CMDA provides resources, networking opportunities, education, and a public voice for Christian healthcare professionals and students."

The following position papers/guidelines are of particular interest in discussions about freedom of conscience and have been made available on the Project website with the kind permission of the CMDA.  Visit the CMDA website for information and links about other issues of interest

Health Care Right of Conscience

Moral Complicity with Evil

Double Effect

Healthcare Education and Christian Faith 
 

ISLAMIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA

Use of Physicians for Human Torture

DR. SHAHID ATHAR, MD, FACE,
Clinical Associate Professor, Indiana University School of Medicine; Former Chair, Medical Ethics Committee, Islamic Medical Association of North America.

Islamic Medicine
This on-line publication includes articles from the Journal of the Islamic Medical Association.  Among them:
- Character of the Physician (Shahid Athar)
- The Role of a Muslim Doctor (Mahmoud Abu-Saud)
- Islam and Medicine (Hasan Gaznavi)
- Islamic Code of Medical Professional Ethics (Abdul Rahim, C. Amine, Ahmed Elkadi)
- Islamic Philosophy of Medicine (Amanullah Khan)
- Islamic Perspective in Medical Ethics (Shahid Athar)

Euthanasia and Physician - Assisted Suicide

Islamic Medical Ethics - Some Questions & Concerns