About Me

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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019) and AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021).

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Chrys Stevenson on Doctors in Conscience

Chrys Stevenson really nails it here.

Now, there's a lot more to say about this issue of conscientious objection in health care, and it won't surprise you to be told that I say a fair bit of it in Freedom of Religion and the Secular State.

But meanwhile, the idea that there is substantial support on a worldly basis for doctors being able to opt out of emergency abortions looks like a myth. Once you remove otherworldly considerations and esoteric moral theories that are deeply entangled with religion, you don't have much basis to object to abortions, much less to emergency abortions. It's not surprising that so many of these doctors turn out to be deeply religious, though it's surprising that so many don't own up to it freely and candidly.

1 comment:

Russell Blackford said...

I have deleted an off-topic comment on an Elevatorgate-related matter. I have also deleted the reply to it.

As I've said before, this blog is an Elevatorgate-free zone. There are many other places to discuss Elevatorgate if you are still interested in it, or in its fall-out.