Abstract

For the past 45 years a passionate debate has been going on about whether doctors should be allowed or forbidden to bring their consciences—defined as their religious beliefs and moral convictions—into the exam room.1 Focusing explicitly or implicitly on abortion and assisted suicide, this debate has made it almost impossible to talk about conscience in a broader way. And yet it is critical to do so today, as huge corporations take over medicine and, with it, power over doctors' actions.Here, then, I will explore "conscience" in a different way, not as a set of religious beliefs or moral convictions, but as I experience it, as an inner sense of rightness and falseness. My argument will be that to not heed that...