Abstract
Medical practice implies the controversial encounter of diverse circumstances in which eventual conflicts between physicians and patients values as well as between physicians values and legal or institutional rules arise. When dealing with these situations, physicians have the right to refuse acting against their moral conscience. This conscientious objection, accepted as a personal right and recognized by several legislations and medical ethics codes, is valid only if it has been reasonably justified and declared in advance. Conversely, it would be invalid if it is based upon convenience or understood as a collective refusal, which may be a form of civil disobedience. Conscientious objection in medicine is considered a limited right even though patients ought to be respected in their demands for legally accepted treatments or interventions. On the other hand, personal conscientious objection is different from the prerogative of institutions to establish their own regulations according to their institutional ideology or ethics codes. However, public hospitals have to offer all treatments or interventions legally allowed, since the state has the obligation to guarantee all citizens an appropriate access to them.
Highlights
Medical practice implies the controversial encounter of diverse circumstances in which eventual conflicts between physicians and patients’ values as well as between physicians’ values and legal or institutional rules arise
Si bien la objeción de conciencia es un derecho personal, las instituciones son libres de establecer normas propias de acuerdo a consensos o códigos de ética institucional
Y así como la objeción de conciencia del profesional debe ser respetada, también deben serlo las instituciones privadas que, en base a sus idearios o estatutos, establecen restricciones o condiciones para ciertos procedimientos
Summary
Medical practice implies the controversial encounter of diverse circumstances in which eventual conflicts between physicians and patients’ values as well as between physicians’ values and legal or institutional rules arise When dealing with these situations, physicians have the right to refuse acting against their moral conscience. This conscientious objection, accepted as a personal right and recognized by several legislations and medical ethics codes, is valid only if it has been reasonably justified and declared in advance. Aunque el reconocimiento jurídico varía en diferentes países, este derecho humano universal significa que, ante un auténtico conflicto de conciencia, existe un derecho de las personas a negarse a actuar en contra de sus propios valores y creencias, lo que se constituye en “objeción de conciencia”[3]. Entre ellas cabe destacar el Código de Ética del Colegio Médico de Chile, la Guía de Buenas Prácticas Médicas del General Medical Council en el Reino Unido y el Código de Deontología Médica de la Organización Médica Colegial de España[6,7,8]
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