Conscientious Objection As An Expanding Ethical Issue In Medical Practice

INTRODUCTION[|]In this study, it is aimed to define the problem in question, to evaluate its relation with the concept of conscientious objection, to determine the emerging and potential problems that may be caused by the current situation and to present recommendations for solution. [¤]METHODS[|]The first emergence of the concept of "conscientious objection" in medical ethics literature has been about the physicians' refusals to provide some medical services for moral reasons. One of the first of such phenomenon was Hippocrates' refusal of the Persian King Artaxerxes' proposal for ending of the plague outbreak in the Persian Empire. The reason for Hippocrates's refusal was a conscientious objection based on the warfare between Athens and the Persian Empire. Some physicians' refusals to participate in the Nazi research that is incompatible with medical ethics are also historical examples for the phenomenon. Today, conscientious objection comes to the fore mostly in abortion, euthanasia, artificial insemination etc. Conscientious objection bases on various elements such as ethical values, religious beliefs and ideological loyalties. In this study, the relationship between the refusal to provide healthcare services to a patient from a certain gender due to the religious beliefs of the physician and the concept of conscientious objection will be evaluated ethically with special reference to Turkey.[¤]RESULTS[|]As the influence of the life style based on Islamic value judgments increases in the public sphere in Turkey during the last two decades, the tendency to reject the patient due to his/her gender and to base this action on the concept of conscientious objection has been increased. Unlike the historical examples, both male and female physicians refuse to provide healthcare service to the opposite-sex patients. Similar requests could come from the patients and choosing physicians according to their gender becomes prevalent. Whether this situation can be handled in terms of physician and patient rights and not providing a physician from the appropriate sex should be evaluated as a violation of patients' rights is a matter of debate. In addition, questions such as how these issues are being experienced in nursing, dentistry, and allied health professions are expected to be answered.[¤]DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION[|]The mass movement of the Muslim population, which has emerged due to the conflicts in the last decades, has caused a similar problem in Europe. The recent publications on conscientious objection clearly demonstrate the changing structure of the ethical issue. Overcoming the challenges in the modern Western societies is even more difficult because of the gap between the explanatory models of the secular modern medical practices and the Islamic value judgments. [¤]