scholarly journals The Conscientious Objection of Medical Practitioners to the CPSO’s “Effective Referral” Requirement

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-37
Author(s):  
Richard Moon
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practice ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Medical Procedure ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Liberal State ◽  
Medical Practitioners ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Religious Dress ◽  
The Individual

The term “conscience” is used in two different ways in discussions about religious freedom. Sometimes, conscience is contrasted with religion. Freedom of conscience, in contrast to freedom of religion, is concerned with the protection of fundamental beliefs or commitments that are not part of a religious or spiritual system.1 Together, freedom of conscience and freedom of religion protect the individual’s most fundamental moral beliefs or commitments.2 Other times, though, the term “conscience” refers to a particular kind of accommodation claim. In most religious accommodation cases, an individual or group seeks to be exempted from a law that prevents them from engaging in a religious practice — for example, from wearing religious dress or keeping religious holidays. In conscientious objection cases, how- ever, the individual asks to be exempted from a law that requires them to perform an act that they regard as immoral or sinful. In many of these cases the claimant asks to be excused from performing an act that is not itself immoral, but supports or facilitates what they see as the immoral action of others, and so makes them complicit in this immorality. In this comment I will focus on this second use of the term conscience, and more particularly the conscientious objection claim made by some medical practitioners in Ontario to the requirement that they provide an effective referral to another doctor when they are unwilling, for moral or religious reasons, to perform a particular medical procedure(...) 1 The term “freedom of conscience” was once used interchangeably with freedom of religion to refer to an individual’s freedom to hold beliefs that were spiritual or moral in At this earlier time the moral beliefs of most individuals were rooted in a religious system. Freedom of conscience, though, is now viewed as an alternative to, or extension of, freedom of religion.2 However, as I have argued elsewhere, the conscience part of section 2(a) is seldom raised before the courts and may have very little practical See Richard Moon, “Conscience in the Image of Religion” in John Adenitire, ed, Religious Beliefs and Conscientious Exemptions in a Liberal State (Oxford: Hart, 2019) 73.

scholarly journals Religious Tolerance, Freedom of Conscience, Freedom of Religion and Belief in the period of Establishment of Christianity

2020 ◽  
pp. 10-19
Author(s):  
Mykhailo Babii
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
Evolution Of Ideas ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
Spiritual Freedom

The author examines the process of establishment of Christian understanding of freedom of conscience and freedom of religion and tolerance. In doing so, he draws on the achievements of the Greek and Greek-Roman traditions of interpreting freedom of conscience. The time of late antiquity accounts for the time of organizational establishment and strengthening of the new religion - Christianity. Describing this period, the author notes the presence of a variety of cults and sects in which foreign gods (in particular, Egyptian and Iranian) were worshiped. In this situation, individuals were free to choose their faith and satisfy their personal need for spiritual connection with God or gods. Against the background of the fall of the authority of ancient religions, the emergence and strengthening of the Emperor cult Christians seek recognition by the authorities, the equation of rights. After all, Christianity becomes a state religion. At this time, a new religious paradigm was emerging that could be a factor in the multi-ethnic, multi-tribal, or multilingual unity of the Roman Empire. The tendency of growing interest in monotheistic, in particular Jewish, religion became noticeable: the idea of one and all-pervading God was opposed to ancient polytheism. The article reveals the peculiarities of the Christian understanding of freedom, which underlies the inner personal spiritual freedom bestowed by God. Christianity the first formulated the idea of freedom of religious conscience as freedom to choose religion. In addition to the individual dimension of freedom of conscience, Christianity has actualized the community's right to freedom of religion, freedom of outside religion, and worship. At the same time, it theoretically substantiated these rights and practically required its observance by the authorities. The legitimacy of the affirmation of the principle of freedom of religious conscience is the Milan edict of 313, which opened the union of the Christian church and the state, as well as the constitutionalization of the Christian church as a state church. This provoked persecution on religious grounds and the struggle of different movements, both within Christianity and beyond, for the right to freedom of religion, the free expression of their religious beliefs. Christianity significantly influenced the evolution of ideas about freedom of conscience, becoming the semantic nucleus of its modern understanding. However, early Christianity proved to be a force that, in the struggle for its claim, was repeatedly harassed, but also resorted to persecution of dissenters, showing intolerance to other worldviews and religions.

scholarly journals Problematic Aspects of Measuring the Legal Status of Neo-Religions in Ukraine

2007 ◽  
pp. 95-99
Author(s):  
Mykhailo Yu. Babiy
Keyword(s):  
Legal Status ◽  
Religious Organizations ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Religious Expression ◽  
Effective Mechanism ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Collective Levels ◽  
Scientific Reflection ◽  
The Individual

First of all, I consider it necessary to note that the full value of freedom of existence of religious organizations (all without exception) operating in the territory of our country, the realization of their tasks, goals depends first of all on the effective mechanism of their legal support and legal guarantees. It is clear that the legal norms fixed in the legislation of Ukraine, which relate to the sphere of freedom of religion, concern only the plane of realization of freedom of conscience - freedom of religious expression both at the individual and the collective levels. This is an extremely pressing issue that needs scientific reflection.

On the Possibility of a Criminal Law Defence for Conscientious Objection

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 387-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Itzhak Kugler
Keyword(s):  
Civil Disobedience ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Moral Wrong ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Law ◽  
Political Act ◽  
The Individual

In this paper, I will discuss the question of the response of the law to the social phenomenon of violation of the law from moral motives. This phenomenon is characterised by the fact that the motivation behind the violation of the law is the desire of the actor to act according to his moral beliefs. In the case of “normal” criminality, on the other hand, a person violates the law for non-moral reasons, e.g., to obtain an advantage, to release anger, etc. Within the category of morally-motivated violation, too, there are different types of breach. First, a distinction exists between “revolutionary disobedience” and other acts. “Revolutionary disobedience” might also be motivated by moral considerations, but it is differentiated in that it involves violations of the law which are intended to bring about a change in the existing regime. As opposed to this, there are violations of the law which are motivated by moral considerations, but which are perpetrated by people who are interested in the continuation of the existing regime and social structure in its entirety. I shall not deal with “revolutionary disobedience” in this paper.Secondly, even within the group of violations from moral motives which do not constitute “revolutionary disobedience”, the present practice is to identify two types of breach: civil disobedience and conscientious objection. The main thrust of the distinction is this: in essence, civil disobedience is a political act, an appeal to the public, and its aim is to bring about a change in the law or in policy which seem to the violator to be wrong or immoral. Conscientious objection is a personal act. The violator feels that should he submit to the law, in the circumstances, he will be committing a moral wrong. The objector’s act is not motivated by a desire to influence the whole polity, but rather, by a desire to stay clean, and not to perpetrate, with his own hands, a moral wrong. In effect this is an act of the individual defending himself against coercive pressures to perform what he regards as a moral wrong.

17. Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion

2020 ◽  
pp. 461-487
Author(s):  
Bernadette Rainey ◽  
Pamela McCormick ◽  
Clare Ovey
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Military Service ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
European Convention ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Article 9 ◽  
Freedom Of Thought ◽  
Religious Dress

This chapter examines the protection of the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion in the European Convention on Human Rights. It explains the provisions of Article 9 and the definition that has been given to the concepts of ‘religion’, ‘belief’, and the ‘manifestation of religion or belief’. It analyses the decisions made by the Strasbourg Court in several related cases, including those involving proselytism, the wearing of religious dress and symbols, the manifestation of religion and belief by prisoners, the conscientious objection to military service, immigration issues which touch on the freedom of religion, and the recognition and authorisation of religious organisations.

scholarly journals Freedom of Religion in the Italian Constitution

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Renata Tokrri
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Cultural Element ◽  
Italian Constitution

In Italy, Catholicism was the dominant faith for about two thousand years and until recently almost the only one. This has meant that it has taken root in the country as a primary socio-cultural element also for the laity and non-believers. Every legal system in a democratic state must find the normative mechanisms to guarantee and protect the religious phenomenon. With the advent of the Republican Constitution, the religious phenomenon is foreseen and regulated in four articles: Articles 7, 8, 19, 20 of the Constitution, to which we must add the guarantees deriving from articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution. These Articles sanction the principle of equality of all confessions and non-discrimination on a religious basis, the freedom to profess one's beliefs both individually and collectively, in public or private, ect. The analysis aims to understand the capacity of these provisions to guarantee all dimensions of the religious phenomenon. In this regard, the question arose whether these articles protect freedom of conscience, conscientious objection and atheism. It is also important to analyze those are the limits that this freedom encounters.

scholarly journals Free religious choice of man as a complex spiritual process

2005 ◽  
pp. 179-189
Author(s):  
Mykhailo Babiy
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Individual

Understanding any problem of human existence, including the question of religious self-determination of the individual, outside the context of those processes that are taking place today at national and world levels, is very problematic. Religious choice, freedom of religion, as well as freedom of conscience as a whole, the legal mechanisms and possibilities for their practical implementation, in particular in Ukraine, are to some extent correlated with a qualitatively new poly-aspect, such as globalization. The latter in the scientific discourse is regarded as "a set of tendencies that are aimed at forming a global interconnection between social phenomena and social actors"

Communicating moral reasoning in medicine as an expression of respect for patients and integrity among professionals

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauris Christopher Kaldjian
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Moral Pluralism ◽  
Moral Integrity ◽  
Moral Beliefs ◽  
Moral Framework ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Moral Frameworks ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Do So

The communication of moral reasoning in medicine can be understood as a means of showing respect for patients and colleagues through the giving of moral reasons for actions. This communication is especially important when disagreements arise. While moral reasoning should strive for impartiality, it also needs to acknowledge the individual moral beliefs and values that distinguish each person (moral particularity) and give rise to the challenge of contrasting moral frameworks (moral pluralism). Efforts to communicate moral reasoning should move beyond common approaches to principles-based reasoning in medical ethics by addressing the underlying beliefs and values that define our moral frameworks and guide our interpretations and applications of principles. Communicating about underlying beliefs and values requires a willingness to grapple with challenges of accessibility (the degree to which particular beliefs and values are intelligible between persons) and translatability (the degree to which particular beliefs and values can be transposed from one moral framework to another) as words and concepts are used to communicate beliefs and values. Moral dialogues between professionals and patients and among professionals themselves need to be handled carefully, and sometimes these dialogues invite reference to underlying beliefs and values. When professionals choose to articulate such beliefs and values, they can do so as an expression of respectful patient care and collaboration and as a means of promoting their own moral integrity by signalling the need for consistency between their own beliefs, words and actions.

Conscientious Objection (European and American approaches)

Law and World ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-144
Keyword(s):  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
State Regulations ◽  
Conscientious Objectors ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Individual

The Article concerns the legal issues, connected with the situation, when a person (or group of people) disobey requirements of the Law or other State regulations on the basis of religious or nonreligious belief. The Author analyses almost all related issues – whether imposing certain obligation on individuals, to which the individual has a conscientious objection based on his/her religious beliefs, always represents interference with his/her religion rights, and if it does, then what is subject of the interference – forum integrum or forum externum; whether neutral regulation, which does not refer to religion issues at all, could ever be regarded as interference into someone’s religious rights; whether opinion or belief, on which the individual’s objection and the corresponding conduct is based, must necesserily represent the clear “manifest” of the same religion or belief in order to gain legal protection; what is regarded as “manifest” of the religion or other belief in general and whether a close and direct link must exist between personal conduct and requirements of the religious or nonreligious belief; what are the criteria of the “legitimacy” of the belief; to what extent the following factors should be taken into consideration : whether the personal conduct of the individual represents the official requirements of corresponding religion or belief, what is the burden which was imposed on the believer’s religious or moral feelings by the State regulation, also, proportionality and degree of sincerity of the individual who thinks that his disobidience to the Law is required by his/her religious of philosofical belief. The effects (direct or non direct) of the nonfulfilment of the law requirement (legal responsibility, lost of the job, certain discomfort, etc..) are relevant factors as well. By the Author, all these circumstances and factors are essencial while estimating, whether it arises, actually, a real necessity and relevant obligation before a state for making some exemptions from the law to the benefi t of the conscientious objectors, in cases, if to predict such an objection was possible at all. So, the issues are discussed in the prism of the negative and positive obligations of a State. Corresponding precedents of the US Supreme Court and European Human Rights Court have been presented and analysed comparatively by the Author in the Article. The Article contains an important resume, in which the main points, principal issues and conclusion remarks are delivered. The Author shows, that due analysis of the legal aspects typical to “Conscientious objection” is very important for deep understanding religious rights, not absolute ones, and facilitates finding a correct answer on the question – how far do their boundaries go?

A Veiled Threat: Belcacemi and Oussar v Belgium

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 190-200
Author(s):  
Jasper Doomen
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
Unequal Treatment ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Full Face ◽  
The Right

The freedom of the individual can easily come into conflict with his or her obligation to integrate in society. The case of Belcacemi and Oussar v Belgium provides a good example. It is evident that some restrictions of citizens’ freedoms must be accepted for a state to function and, more basically, persist; as a consequence, it is acceptable that certain demands, incorporated in criminal law, are made of citizens. The issue of the extent to which such restrictions are justified has increasingly become a topic of discussion. The present case raises a number of important questions with respect to the right to wear a full-face veil in public if the societal norm is that the face should be visible, the most salient of which are whether women should be ‘protected’ from unequal treatment against their will and to what extent society may impose values on the individual. I will argue that Belgian law places unwarranted restrictions on citizens and that the values behind it testify to an outlook that is difficult to reconcile with the freedom of conscience and religion.

scholarly journals Theory and Practice of the Realization of the Right to Freedom of Religion: All-Ukrainian and Regional Contexts

2013 ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Liudmyla O. Fylypovych
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Religious Organizations ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Freedom Of Conscience ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right

The right to freedom of religion is enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine on Freedom of Conscience and religious organizations. Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that this right includes the freedom to profess any religion or not to profess any, to freely send individually or collectively religious ceremonies, to conduct religious activities.

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