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30 Fordham Urb. L.J. 245 (2002-2003)
The Physician as a Conscientios Objector

handle is hein.journals/frdurb30 and id is 287 raw text is: THE PHYSICIAN AS A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR J. David Bleich* I. ACCOMMODATION OF THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR Rabbinic lore relates an anecdote, probably apocryphal, portray- ing a lively student who flits from person to person in the study hall. To each one he says, I have an answer. Ask me a question! I do not claim to have a resolution to the dilemma posed when a conflict arises between a patient's rights and a physician's con- science, certainly not a facile one. My real task is to convince those in a position to implement a solution that a problem exists and that it merits serious consideration. Patient autonomy certainly de- serves both moral respect and legal protection, but to demand of a physician that she act in a manner she deems to be morally un- palatable not only compromises the physician's ethical integrity, but is also likely to have a corrosive effect upon the dedication and zeal with which she ministers to patients. Society has long recognized and been forced to come to grips with the conflict arising from a woman's right to terminate a preg- nancy as announced by the United States Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade,1 and the moral convictions of a health care practitioner that constrain her to refuse to participate in the extinguishing of nas- cent human life. A physician's belief that certain forms of assisted reproduction constitute a violation of natural law does not impact an infertile couple's right of procreation for the simple reason that a physician who espouses such views will choose another area of specialization. Yet, the issue of whether an employer who finds such forms of procreation to be morally offensive that must never- theless include coverage of such forms of fertility treatment in health care insurance provided to employees represents an un- resolved moral dilemma as evidenced by a recent debate in the * Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; Tenzer Professor of Jewish Law and Ethics, Yeshiva University; Professor of Talmud and Director of Post- graduate Institute for Jurisprudence and Family Law, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theologi- cal Seminary; Herbert and Florence Tenzer Professor of Jewish Law and Ethics, Yeshiva University. 1. 410 U.S. 113, 153 (1973).

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