This page lists writings by Joyce Arthur and/or Christian Fiala (Our Publications).
It also lists those of colleagues who agree that belief-based care denial is incompatible with medical professionalism and ethics (Publications by Others).
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(Jan 2017) My Conscience May Be My Guide, but You May Not Need to Honor It
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, Volume 26, Issue 1, January 2017 , pp. 44-58 Hugh LaFollette https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963180116000256 Abstract: A number of healthcare professionals assert a right to be exempt from performing some actions currently designated as part of their standard professional responsibilities. Most advocates claim that they should be excused from these duties simply by […]
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(Dec 2016) Objection to Conscience: An Argument Against Conscience Exemptions in Healthcare
Alberto Giubilini 23 December 2016 https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12333 Abstract I argue that appeals to conscience do not constitute reasons for granting healthcare professionals exemptions from providing services they consider immoral (e.g. abortion). My argument is based on a comparison between a type of objection that many people think should be granted, i.e. to abortion, and one that […]
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(Nov 2016) The dishonourable disobedience of not providing abortion
Letter to the EditorEuropean Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health CareJoyce Arthur, Christian Fiala, Kristina Gemzell Danielsson, Published online: 04 Nov 2016 Synopsis: While stigma negatively impacts almost every aspect of abortion care to some degree, ‘dishonourable disobedience’ is a form of full-blown, officially-approved stigma, which makes it particularly unsupportable, especially when abortion access is […]
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(Fall 2016) Accommodating Conscientious Objection in Medicine-Private Ideological Convictions Must Not Trump Professional Obligations
By Udo Schuklenk J Clin Ethics. 2016 Fall;27(3):227-232. Abstract: The opinion of the American Medical Association (AMA) Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) on the accommodation of conscientious objectors among medical doctors aims to balance fairly patients’ rights of access to care and accommodating doctors’ deeply held personal beliefs. Like similar documents, it fails. […]
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(Sept 2016) Doctors Have no Right to Refuse Medical Assistance in Dying, Abortion or Contraception
Julian Savulescu and Udo Schuklenk First published: 22 September 2016 https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12288 Abstract In an article in this journal, Christopher Cowley argues that we have ‘misunderstood the special nature of medicine, and have misunderstood the motivations of the conscientious objectors’.1 We have not. It is Cowley who has misunderstood the role of personal values in the […]
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(June 2016) Conscientious Objection in Healthcare Provision: A New Dimension
Peter West-Oram and Alena Buyx Bioethics 2016 Jun;30(5):336-43. doi: 10.1111/bioe.12236 Abstract The right to conscientious objection in the provision of healthcare is the subject of a lengthy, heated and controversial debate. Recently, a new dimension was added to this debate by the US Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell vs. Hobby Lobby et al. which effectively […]
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(April 2016) Why medical professionals have no moral claim to conscientious objection accommodation in liberal democracies
Udo Schuklenk, Ricardo Smalling BMJ Journal of Medical Ethics April 27, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/medethics-2016-103560 Abstract: We describe a number of conscientious objection cases in a liberal Western democracy. These cases strongly suggest that the typical conscientious objector does not object to unreasonable, controversial professional services—involving torture, for instance—but to the provision of professional services that are […]
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(Feb 2016) Yes We Can! Successful Examples of Disallowing ‘Conscientious Objection’ in Reproductive Healthcare
Christian Fiala, Kristina Gemzell Danielsson, Oskari Heikinheimo, Jens A. Guðmundsson, and Joyce Arthur. European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Healthcare. 2016. tandfonline.com Abstract: Three countries – Sweden, Finland, and Iceland – do not generally permit HCPs in the public healthcare system to refuse to perform a legal medical service for reasons of ‘CO’ when the […]
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(Nov 2015) The right to die and the medical cartel
M. Cholbi 19 November 2015 Ethics, Medicine, & Public Health Summary Advocates of a right to die increasingly assert that the right in question is a positive right (a right to assistance in dying) and that the right in question is held against physicians or the medical community. Physician organizations often reply that these claims […]
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(2015) Conscientious Objection in Medicine: private ideological convictions must not supercede public service obligations
“The very idea that we ought to countenance conscientious objection in any profession is objectionable.” U. Schuklenk Bioethics ISSN 0269-9702 (print); 1467-8519 (online) doi:10.1111/bioe.12167 Volume 29 Number 5 2015 pp ii–iii Canada’s Supreme Court decided that Canadians’ constitutional rights are violated by the criminalisation of assisted dying. Canada’s politicians are currently scrambling to come up […]
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(Oct 2015) “Conscientious Objection” in Reproductive Healthcare is Immoral and Should Be Abolished
Joyce Arthur. October 2015. (blog) www.choice-joyce.blogspot.ca Synopsis: In this piece, I discuss or expand upon a few aspects that have come up in informal discussions with researchers and academics, mostly around philosophical and epistemological issues. Includes: – A summary of my position on CO : – Is CO ever justifiable in healthcare? – Is CO in […]
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(2015) Health care providers’ perceptions of and attitudes towards induced abortions in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia
Subtitle: A systematic literature review of qualitative and quantitative data Ulrika Rehnström Loi, Kristina Gemzell-Danielsson, Elisabeth Faxelid, and Marie Klingberg-Allvin BMC Public Health (2015) 15:139 DOI 10.1186/s12889-015-1502-2 Partial Abstract: Background: Unsafe abortions are a serious public health problem and a major human rights issue. In low-income countries, where restrictive abortion laws are common, safe abortion […]
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(April 2015) Christian doctors angry they can no longer abandon their patients
Synopsis: A critique of anti-choice views on “conscientious objection”, including in particular the views of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada, which is suing the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for enacting a policy requiring objecting doctors to refer patients to someone who can provide the services. Joyce Arthur. Rabble.ca. April […]
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(Dec 2014) ‘Dishonourable Disobedience’: Why Refusal to Treat in Reproductive Healthcare Is Not Conscientious Objection.
Christian Fiala and Joyce H. Arthur. Woman – Psychosomatic Gynaecology and Obstetrics. December 2014 (first published online March 2014). www.sciencedirect.com Synopsis: A comprehensive paper that uniquely delves into the underlying premises of CO to show that it is fundamentally contradictory and unworkable, and has nothing in common with the military CO from which it is […]
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(Aug 2014) Doctors do not have the right to discriminate and deny basic healthcare
Synopsis: Policies and practice around “conscientious objection” in reproductive healthcare in Canada, and a summary of the “Dishonourable Disobedience” paper by Joyce Arthur and Christian Fiala to show what’s wrong with CO. Joyce Arthur. Rabble.ca. August 1, 2014. www.rabble.ca
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(July 2014) The CO debate: ‘Conscientious Objection’ is still dishonourable disobedience
Joyce Arthur and Christian Fiala. Bpas Reproductive Review. July 14, 2014. Republished here. Synopsis: A response to our critics, including Global Doctors for Choice. We paraphrase and respond to eight criticisms, most of which we feel ignored or misunderstood our position.
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(June 2014) The paradox of conscientious objection and the anemic concept of ‘conscience’
The paradox of conscientious objection and the anemic concept of ‘conscience’: downplaying the role of moral integrity in health care. Giubilini A. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, June 2014, Vol. 24, No. 2, 159-185, by Johns Hopkins University Press Abstract Conscientious objection in health care is a form of compromise whereby health care practitioners can […]
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(May 2014) Why We Need to Ban ‘Conscientious Objection’ in Reproductive Healthcare
Joyce Arthur and Christian Fiala. Rewire. May 14, 2014. Rewire.news Synopsis: A criticism of the global consensus by secular medical and health organizations and human rights bodies that “conscientious objection” is a legitimate right of physicians. All such groups that accept CO simply assume without question that healthcare providers have a right to CO, while […]
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(Aug 2013) Conscientious objection and induced abortion in Europe
Heino A, Gissler M, Apter D, Fiala C. Eur J Contracept Reprod Healthcare. 2013 Aug;18(4):231-3. doi: 10.3109/13625187.2013.819848. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Abstract: The issue of conscientious objection (CO) arises in healthcare when doctors and nurses refuse to have any involvement in the provision of treatment of certain patients due to their religious or moral beliefs. Most commonly CO […]
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(July 2012) Annotation of Prof. Carlo Flamigni, in “Conscientious Objection and Bioethics”
Annotation of Prof. Carlo Flamigni, in “Conscientious Objection and Bioethics, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Comitato Nazionale per la Bioetica (CNB). Translated from “Obiezione di Conscienza e Bioeteca,” Pesidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri. 12 July 2012 This Italian report from the National Committee of Bioethics declares “conscientious objection” in healthcare to be an […]