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The Place of Conscience in Healthcare Practice

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Title: The Place of Conscience in Healthcare Practice


1
The Place of Conscience in Healthcare Practice
  • Jerome R. Wernow Ph.D., R.Ph.
  • NW Center for Bioethics
  • www.ncbioethics.org

2
Conscience Use
3
Objectives
  • History behind socio-cultural difference that
    commonly lead to social and ethical tensions
  • Understand the terminology used in the conscience
    clause discussion
  • Conflict management with patients, employers,
    employees, or advocacy groups

4
Take Home Points
  • Disclosure that is well thought out
  • Disclosure that is legally informed
  • Disclosure that is timely and concise
  • Disclosure that is authentic
  • Disclosure that avoids moralizing
  • Disclosure that assures patient care

5
Well thought out Clarification
  • Scope
  • Terms

6
Scope of Conscientious Objection
  • Abortion
  • Euthanasia
  • Assisted suicide
  • Fetal and stem cell therapy
  • Sterilization

Religious Refusals and Reproductive Rights-ACLU
Reproductive Freedom Project 2002, Weiss,
Catherine, Caitlin Borgmann, and Louise Melling
et al lthttp//www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/ACF911.pdf
gt p. 21
7
Scope Limits in Presentation
  • Plan B contraception
  • Meaning large doses of estrogen and
    levonorgestrel or a progestin congener in one or
    two doses to prevent pregnancy
  • Litmus test due to time-related urgency of
    medication administration

8
Mechanism of Action
  • (1) primarily prevents or delays ovulation
  • (2) Interferes with tubal transport of sperm,
  • (3) interferes with fertilization
  • (4) possibly prevents implantation of the
    fertilized egg

Kathleen Besinque Emergency Contraception, in
Drug Topics. February 20, 2006, p. 7
lthttp//images.digiscript.com.edgesuite.net
/a/21000/21949/21949-1743964.pdf?objv1gt Last
visited January 27, 2007.
9
Pluralism in Objection
  • Roman Catholic teaching of the Church objects on
    basis of all four mechanisms
  • Pro-life protestants usually object only the
    basis of the fourth mechanism

10
Clarification of Terms
  • Conscience Clause ? Refusal Clause

11
Conscience Clause
  • an innate moral character expressed in an
    objective moral confession that responds to a
    morally challenging circumstance

Charles E. Curran, ed., Conscience, in Readings
in Moral Theology Series no.14. (New YorkMahwah,
NJ Paulist Press, 2004) pp. 3-38.
12
A View Conscience
Conscious
Subconscious
Emergence
Pre-conscious
Corporeality
Spiritual Illumination
Psychofacticity
A Christianized Franklian View Frankl, Victor
The Unconscious God. (New York Washington
Square Books, 1985) p. 29.
13
Refusal Clause
  • a law that allows entities and/or individuals to
    refuse to provide or cover certain health
    services based on religious or moral objections.

ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project 2002, p. 6.
14
Mythos and Logos
  • Mythos describes worldly things by tracing them
    to exceptional, sometimes sacred events, that
    caused the world to be as it is now.
  • Logos a kind of logical analysis that places
    things in the context of reason and explains them
    with the pure force of thought.

Palmer, Donald Looking at Philosophy The
Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made Lighter.
(Mountain View, CA Mayfield Publishing) second
edition, 1994, p. 2.
15
Mythos and Logos
  • There are other accounts, however, accounts that
    suggest that Western Logos-philosophy and science
    is just our version of mythos.

Palmer, Donald Looking at Philosophy The
Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made Lighter.
(Mountain View, CA Mayfield Publishing) second
edition, 1994, p. 2.
16
Short History behind Socio-cultural Difference
  • Mythos
  • Hippocrates (460-347 BC)
  • Scribonius Largus (47 AD)
  • C. Galenus (129-201 AD)
  • Church Fathers (330 AD)
  • Quiescent Period
  • American Medical Association in 1847
  • Logos
  • Plato (460-347 BC)
  • Soranus (47 AD)
  • Marquis de Sade 1740-1814 AD
  • Post-Christian Epoch

Edmund D. Pellegrino The Metamorphosis of
Medical Ethics, The Journal of the American
Medical Association. v. 269/9 (March 3, 1993)
pp. 1158-1162.
17
Changes behind public acceptance of contraception
and abortifacients
  • Drug effectiveness
  • Worldview
  • Epistemology
  • Ethics
  • Socio-political factors

18
Metamorphosis in Drug Effectiveness
  • Development and release of Enovid
  • (June 23, 1960 )

unfetteredfrom the beginning woman has been a
vassal to temporal demandsand frequently the
aberrationsof cyclic mechanisms of her
reproductive system. Now to a degree heretofore
unknown, she is permitted normalization,
enhancement or suspension of cyclic function and
procreative potentia S.W, Junod and L . Marks
"The first oral contraceptive pill. p. 128-129.
19
Metamorphosis in Worldview
  • enlightenment philosophy and rationality
    leavened the bread of moral philosophy in the
    medical schools, studies in humanist psychology
    began to be substituted for Christian ethics

op cit Chester R. Burns, American Ethics
Some Historical Roots
20
Metamorphosis in Epistemology
  • Judeo-Christian Hippocratic ethic dominant
    seventeen centuries dominant explaining how
    things exist sourced in the Biblical
    interpretations
  • Modernitys early epistemological drift embraced
    mutual influence of Christian theology and
    scientific belief
  • John Locke introduced split empirical knowledge
    from that of the world of faith
  • Drift became a torrent from atheists David Hume
    to Richard Dawkins to Samuel Harris
  • Evolutionary materialism became dominant
    explaining what exists through empirical
    observation of the material world

21
The Ethics of Power
  • "Not the Church, not the StateWomen will decide
    our fate.

Pat Ruess and Jan Erickson, Access for All?
Reclaiming Women's Contraceptive Options one
Pharmacy at a Time, lthttp//www.now.org/issues/re
productive/ec_action_plan.htmlgt Last visited
January 20, 2007
22
Socio-cultural difference
  • Those who construct the meanings of reality
    through stories about the material world alone --
    contrasted to those who construct meanings of
    reality through stories about the material world
    along with stories about realities that transcend
    that world.

23
Conflict Management
  • Conflict is sourced in differing worldview
    commitments that give meaning to the perceived
    rights and actualization of the individuals.

24
Judeo-Christian Worldview
  • Reality, meaning, and practice gains moral
    clarity primarily through narratives is derived
    from a supernatural source, their Bible.

25
Paula Koch an example
  • Discovered morning after pill dispensed eighteen
    months before her initial confrontation
  • Informed by passages like Psalm 139, Genesis
    127, and Exodus 203
  • Based sanctity of life principle as found in
    Donum Vitae

26
Donum Vitae, 5
  • God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning
    until its end no one can under any circumstance
    claim for himself the right directly to destroy
    an innocent human being

Pope John Paul II Donum Vita 5
http//www.nccbuscc.org/prolife/
tdocs/introduction.htm Last visited October 24,
2007.
27
Evolutionary Natural Materialism
  • Reality, meaning, and practice gain moral clarity
    is primarily from narratives derived from human
    reason and experience.

28
Protagonists of Reproductive Access
  • NARAL - positive right (reason)
  • ACLU (Dershowitz) - majoritarian preference
    (human experience)

29
Positive Right
  • If 'A' has a positive right against 'B', then
    'B' must assist 'A' to do 'x' if 'A' is not able
    to do 'x' without that assistance (wiki)

30
Majoritarian Preference
  • right that derives from the majorities
    current experience of grievous injustice whose
    recurrence we seek to prevent.

Dershowitz, Alan Rights from Wrongs a Secular
Theory of the Origins of Rights. (New York, Basic
Books, 2004) pp. 82, 90
31
Disclosure that is legally informed
  • National Conscience
  • States of Conscience

32
Legal History and Federal Laws
  • Generated from US Supreme Courts 1973 decision
    in Roe v. Wade

Jody Feder The History and Effect of Abortion
Conscience Clause Laws, in CRS Report for
Congress. CRS-2. lt http//www.law.umaryland.edu/
marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments
/RS2142801142005.pdf gt Last visited November 12,
2007
33
Church Amendment 1973
  • Allowed health care professionals to opt out of
    procedures involving sterilization or abortion
    procedures to which they had moral or ethical
    objections in institutions which received federal
    funding.

34
Balanced Budget Act of 1997
  • permitted managed care organizations to opt out
    of providing, reimbursing for, or
    providing coverage of, counseling or referral
    service if the organization objects to the
    service on moral or religious grounds.

42 U.S.C. Section 1396u-(b)(3)(B)(ii)(2000). See
also 42 C.F.R. Section 438.102(a)(2)(2002).
35
Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA) 2002
  • Allows providers or any other kind of health
    care facility, organization or plan to opt out of
    performing, providing coverage of, or paying or
    making referrals for induced abortions, without
    exception to save the life or health of the
    mother or for cases of rape or incest.

American Bar Association Section on Individual
Rights and Responsibilities, Report to the House
of Delegates, at 7 (2004). www.abanet.org/leaders
hip/ 2004/annual/119.doc Last visited November
12, 2007
36
Hyde-Weldon Amendment
  • (1) None of the funds made available in this Act
    the federal Health and Human Services
    appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2005 may be
    made available to a Federal agency or program, or
    to a State or local government, if such agency,
    program, or government subjects any institutional
    or individual health care entity to
    discrimination on the basis that the health care
    entity does not provide, pay for, provide
    coverage of, or refer for abortions.

37
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • SEC. 2000e-2. Section 703 (a) It shall be an
    unlawful employment practice for an employer -
    (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any
    individual, or otherwise to discriminate against
    any individual with respect to his compensation,
    terms, conditions, or privileges of employment,
    because of such individual's race, color,
    religion, sex, or national origin or

38
AMA Position Statement
  • (2) no physician of other professional personnel
    shall be required to perform an act violative of
    good medical judgment. Neither physician,
    hospital, nor hospital personnel shall be
    required to perform any act violative of
    personally held moral principles. In these
    circumstances, good medical practice requires
    only that the physician or other professional
    withdraw from the case, so long as the withdrawal
    is consistent with good medical practice.

H-5.995 Abortion, House of Delegates (2)
39
Oregon State Statute Unprofessional Conduct
  • any conduct or practice which does or might
    constitute a danger to the health or safety of a
    patient 677.188 (4) a

40
Legal Conflicts Univocal
  • Litigation is strictly against health care
    professionals who can be classified as practicing
    Christians

41
Why Look at Pharmacy?
  • Principle of reproductive access held by
    litigants applies to practice of all health care
    professionals
  • Defendants predicate their positions on commonly
    held principles
  • Pharmacy case law applied to litigation against
    other health care professionals

42
Litigation Sample
  • Karen Brauer v K-Mart
  • Case of Paula Koch
  • Neil Noesen v State of Wisconsin Pharmacy Board
  • Ethan Vandersand v Wal-Mart
  • Stormans v Washington State Board of Pharmacy

43
Noesen v State of Wisconsin Pharmacy Board
  • Notified and fully disclosed to contractor
    K-Mart, of conscientious objection to
    participating in the work of contraception.
  • Arranged alternative at site but not in writing
  • Refused to refill and declined to transfer
  • Perceived by patient and employees as belligerent

44
Immediate Material Cooperation
  • Immediate material cooperation occurs when the
    cooperator participates in circumstances that are
    essential to the commission of an act, such that
    the act could not occur without this
    participation. Immediate material cooperation in
    intrinsically evil actions is morally illicit.

http//www.ascensionhealth.org/ethics/public/key_p
rinciples/cooperation.asp
45
Ruling against Noesen
  1. failed to inform his employer that he would not
    transfer a prescription for oral contraceptives
    based upon his conscientious objection
  2. by failed to provide the patient with information
    pertaining to her options for obtaining a refill
    of her prescriptions.

46
Judge Bairds Ruling
  • the standard of care ordinarily exercised by a
    pharmacist requires that a pharmacist who
    exercises a conscientious objection to the
    dispensing of a prescription must ensure that
    there is an alternative mechanism for the patient
    to receive his or her medication including
    informing the patient of their sic options to
    obtain their prescription.

Findings of Fact no. 54 http//drl.wi.gov/dept/dec
isions/docs/0405070.htm . Last visited October
24, 2007.
47
Noesen v MSN
  • Allegations he simply walked away from customers
    or left them on hold indefinitely
  • Law enforcement forcibly removed Noesen from the
    store by duct taping him to a wheel chair after
    he refused to leave store
  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

48
District Judge John C. Shabaz Ruling
  • Wal-Mart gave Noesen the exact accommodation
    he sought that is, not to transfer, refer,
    renew, dispense, verify or touch prescriptions
    for birth control.
  • not entitled to an additional accommodation
    under the law

Neil T. Noesen v. Medical Staffing Network, Inc.,
et al., United States District Court for the
Western District of Wisconsin (Cause No.
06-C-071-S), June 1, 2006.
49
Stormans v Washington State Board of Pharmacy
  • Plaintiff Rhonda Mesler will be fired from her
    position as pharmacy manager because her employer
    cannot afford to hire another pharmacist to work
    with herto comply with 246-869-010.3
  • Stormans Stores and the pharmacy manager were
    investigated by the Board for allegedly failing
    to maintain an adequate stock of Plan B

50
Stormans v Washington State Board of Pharmacy
  • Equal Protection Violation
  • Supremacy Clause Violation
  • Free Exercise Violation
  • Procedural Due Process Violation

51
Equal Protection Violation
  • Selective enforcement by the Human Rights
    Commission Board of Pharmacy against single v
    multiple Rx employment

52
Supremacy Clause Violation
  • Desire relief from government coercion that
    would deny them an unalienable right of
    conscience on matters of religious and moral
    conviction

53
Free Exercise Violation
  • the Rules and Commission make them choose
    between their livelihoods as health care
    providers and their exercise of religion

54
Procedural Due Process Violation
  • allegation is that the Human Rights Commission
    coerced the Board of Pharmacy to adopt the
    regulations which effectively eliminate the
    pharmacists right to conscience and their
    liberty and property interests and livelihoods,
    secured by the Due Process Clause of the United
    States Constitution

55
Preliminary injunction granted
  • the overriding objective of the subject
    regulations was, to the decree possible, to
    eliminate moral and religious objections from the
    business of dispensing medication which created
    a Hobsons choice for the majority of
    pharmacists who object to Plan B dispense a drug
    that ends a life as defined by their religious
    teachings, or leave their present position in the
    State of Washington.

Stormans Incorporated, et al. v. Selecky, et al.
U. S. District Court for Western District of
Washington No. 07-cv-05374-RBL Order Granting
Preliminary Injunction, November 8, 2007, p. 16.
U. S. District Judge Ronald Leighton
56
Hobsons Choice
  • "Where to elect there is but one, / 'Tis Hobson's
    choicetake that, or none." Ward 1688

57
Principle of Autonomy
  • A womans reproductive self-determination through
    access to emergency contraceptives contradicted a
    health care providers self-determination to
    exercise religious conscience
  • Not resolvable without violation of autonomy

58
Rights
  • Current socio-cultural norm of womens rights and
    gender equality conflicts against rights of
    religious freedom
  • Renders resolution by appeal to rights
    insuperable even though both parties recognize
    rights as a human construct

59
Antecedent meta-ethical commitments
  • Conflict sourced in differing worldview
    commitments that give meaning to the perceived
    rights and actualization of the individuals

60
Conflict Management
  • Conflict sourced in differing worldview
    commitments that give meaning to the perceived
    rights and actualization of the individuals

61
Protagonists
  • Reality, meaning, and practice gains moral
    clarity primarily through narratives derived from
    a supernatural source, their Bible.

62
Antagonists
  • Reality, meaning, and practice gain moral clarity
    primarily from narratives derived from human
    reason and experience.

63
Take Home Points
  • Disclosure that is well thought out
  • Disclosure that is legally informed
  • Disclosure that is timely, concise, and
    documented
  • Disclosure that is courteous
  • Disclosure that avoids moralizing
  • Disclosure that assures patient care
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