‘Objection of conscience’ was a hot bioethical topic in 2007 and will remain in the spotlight for 2008. Objection of conscience overlaps with the bioethical issue ‘clinician autonomy’, a topic that the nonprofit Bioethics International travels the continent discussing with clinicians, hospitals, medical associations and others.   Do clinicians, pharmacists, patients, and hospitals have the right to object to medical interventions that violate their consciences, such as dispensing emergency contraception or the administration of a life saving blood transfusion?  Status update:

• Last week, a 14-year-old leukemia patient objected to a life saving blood transfusion dying shortly thereafter
• All pharmacists must dispense emergency contraception in Washington State.
• Connecticut passed a similar mandate for all hospitals.
• New York State unanimously voted that contraceptives must be covered in prescription drug plans for religious and faith-based ministries, with limited exceptions.

What do we do when everybody’s freedom cannot be respected, who retains the right to exercise an objection of conscience- and under what circumstances?   By Jennifer Miller, Bioethics International ©   Further reading: (Seattle Times) Mount Vernon leukemia patient, 14, dies after rejecting transfusions