What to do with personal values? Conscientious objection in healthcare

Abstract

Conscientious objection (CO) is defined as the refusal to perform a legal role or responsibility due to personal beliefs. In the context of healthcare, CO is when health professionals like physicians, nurses, and midwives refuse to provide a legally available treatment or procedure that has been requested by the patient on the claim that doing so would be acting against their conscience. The right of professionals to CO is highly debated, with some proponents believing it to be an undeniable right, others believing it to be completely inadmissible, and many believing a middle path should be followed. This paper is a systematic review of scientific articles studying the theme, with the objective of studying and reviewing the most common areas in which CO is discussed, the arguments for and against CO, and the various positions regarding CO are reviewed in order to better understand the state of the literature around the topic and to reach a conclusion that summarizes and reconciles what was found.