On Whose Conscience - Patient Rights Disappear under Broad Protective Measures for Conscientious Objectors in Health Care
![handle is hein.journals/udetmr83 and id is 529 raw text is: On Whose Conscience? Patient Rights
Disappear Under Broad Protective
Measures for Conscientious Objectors in
Health Care
[T]he physician-patient relationship is a moral equation with
rights and obligations on both sides .... [I]t must be balanced so
that physicians and patients act beneficently toward each other
while respecting each other's autonomy.'
INTRODUCTION
Balance. Respect. Autonomy.
In 2004, the Michigan House passed a bill called the Conscientious
Objector Policy Act. Though a companion bill did not get out of its
Senate committee, this bill represented the most successful attempt to date
on the issue of enhanced conscience protection measures for health care
providers. Provisions included immunity from criminal or civil liability, as
well as adverse employment actions, for any exercise of conscience under
the bill.
Some members of the health care industry probably saw the measures
as essential and perhaps overdue. Others noted a significant omission, that
a key component present in every medical transaction was strangely absent:
the patient. The bill as passed reflected no balancing of or respect for
patients' rights to autonomy, or their other needs and interests.
This article traces brief histories of health care conscience clauses and
the patient's right to informed consent. It analyzes the bill in the context of
patients' rights, and proposes alternative approaches to restore balance to
the patient-provider relationship, while maintaining providers' rights to
conscience. The article's final section evaluates a variety of potential legal
challenges to protect patients, if the bill is re-introduced unchanged.
1. Edmund D. Pellegrino, Patient and Physician Autonomy: Conflicting Rights and
Obligations in the Physician-Patient Relationship, 10 J. CONTEMP. HEALTH L. & POL'y 47,
47 (1994).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/udetmr83&div=36&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
On Whose Conscience - Patient Rights Disappear under Broad Protective Measures for Conscientious Objectors in Health Care
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most