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Abstract

Opponents of conscientious objection in healthcare, such as Savulescu, argue that healthcare professionals cannot have a right to conscientiously object to provide professional services, because such a right would be incompatible with their professional obligations. Defenders of conscientious objection in healthcare typically respond to this line of argument by describing the professional obligations of healthcare professionals in a ‘top-down’ manner – making generalizations about the healthcare professions and the ways in which these are organized, and deriving claims about individual professional obligations from these generalizations which are compatible with a right to conscientiously object. I argue that such approaches don’t succeed in grounding individual professional obligations. What we need to do instead is to approach this issue ‘bottom up’. The best way to determine what exactly the professional obligations of healthcare professionals are, and to determine whether or not these are compatible with a right to conscientiously object is to focus our attention on the issue of how individual professional obligations are acquired in the healthcare professions. When we do this we arrive at some surprising results, which I outline.

Forthcoming events

The ecology and evolution of microbial communities

Monday, 13 January 2025, 1pm to 2pm @ BDI/OxPop Building LG seminar rooms

Health and economic impacts of Lassa vaccination campaigns in West Africa

Monday, 20 January 2025, 1pm to 2pm @ BDI/OxPop Building LG seminar room

Host-parasite interactions

Monday, 27 January 2025, 1pm to 2pm @ BDI/OxPop Building LG seminar rooms

Marburg vaccine trial

Monday, 03 February 2025, 1pm to 2pm @ BDI/OxPop Building LG seminar rooms

Tuberculosis vaccine R&D and human challenge models

Monday, 10 February 2025, 1pm to 2pm @ BDI/OxPop Building LG seminar rooms

Shingles vaccine and dementia, and other links between infectious diseases and brain health

Monday, 24 February 2025, 1pm to 2pm @ BDI/OxPop Building LG seminar rooms