Kerby Anderson

Should Christian doctors be purged from the U.S. medical system? The question is absurd. Even so it is seriously asked (in a less offensive way) in a recent bioethics journal article. The two authors argue that Christians (and other people who hold to traditional religious beliefs) should not be given the right to refuse to perform services that the physician believes are ethically questionable. They believe that Christians (and others who hold to traditional views) should not be admitted into medical school and should not be practicing medicine. Usually, exemptions are provided for these “conscientious objectors.” They point to countries like Sweden that “provides no legal right of employees to conscientious objection.” Thus, they argue in the title of their journal article that: “Doctors Have No Right to Refuse Medical Assistance in Dying, Abortion, or Contraception.” I must admit that I am bothered by the way these three moral issues are lumped together. I don’t know many doctors who balk at prescribing contraception. And it isn’t hard to get various forms of contraception in your local drug store. But the other two issues of abortion and euthanasia raise significant moral concerns. Let’s also remember that doctors (like my grandfather) used to swear the Hippocratic Oath. It says: “I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion” and “neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so.” Proponents of abortion and physician-assisted suicide argued that people should have a right to make these moral choices. But once such procedures were legalized, now we have others arguing that Christians who would refuse to abort an unborn child or refuse to terminate a life should not be admitted to medical school and should not be permitted to practice medicine. This is now the battle the pro-life movement will need to fight.