The Celestial Fire called Conscience

I thought I was getting used to the bioethics mantra. But this article, dripping with sarcasm and published in the most reknowned medical journal, infuriated me.

It begins: "Apparently heeding George Washington's call to 'labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience,' physicians, nurses, and pharmacists are increasingly claiming a right to the autonomy not only to refuse to provide services they find objectionable, but even to refuse to refer patients to another provider and, more recently, to inform them of the existence of legal options for care."

Here is the rest of this bioethical song and dance in the New England Journal of Medicine, perhaps the most prestigious of medical journals, on the subject of conscience and professionalism. What is nice about this article is that it sums the debate up rather nicely, and reveals the disdain of the bioethics movement for all things moral.