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Video Series: Dominic Wilkinson on Conscientious Objection in Healthcare

Associate Professor and Consultant Neonatologist Dominic Wilkinson (Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics) argues that medical doctors should not always listen to their own conscience and that often they should do what the patient requests, even when this conflicts with their own values.

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2 Comment on this post

  1. What about provider autonomy? Society has also made it legal to not treat. Autonomy cuts both ways.

    Patients should also be taking into account that they are wrong as well, yes? Humility cuts both ways.

    You seem think that being a “professional” means giving deference to the patient as a customer. But isn’t this precisely the opposite of what a professional approach entails? A profession has norms and standards that don’t get rolled by a majority vote or the requests of patients. Being a professional means holding one’s self accountable to norms and values that go well beyond what a particular patient happens to want.

  2. thats wrong!
    for instance am an abortion doctor offering medical abortion procedures and while undergoing the procedure some pills have to be swallowed orally and others inserted inside her “V”
    but there are patients who will say i just need them all to be swallowed and when the procedure does not work out they claim the pills didnt work yet its her who insisted on how its supposed to be done

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