Conscience In Health Care

A decade ago, the debate over conscience protractions for health care professionals centered on abortions and birth control. Over the past few years new cases have emerged that drew the debate and raised questions about the tension between individual’s rights of conscience and the need to protect homosexuals against discrimination. These cases involve healthcare workers – one case in Michigan where a graduate student studying to become a counselor refused to treat gay and lesbian patients because they felt doing so would compromise her religious belief, in another case a Kentucky clerk refuse to issue same-sex marriage license because of her Christian beliefs. Should specialists, drug specialists and other health care professionals have the
The counseling program was designed to give students real world experience by requiring them to counsel several clients, who pay a small fee, over the course of the semester (cite). After going over her client’s file Ward asked a supervisor to refer the client to another counselor because her Christian beliefs about homosexuality would prevent her from alleging the client’s relationship with someone of the same sex. The school expelled Ward from the program because her refusal violated the ethical obligation of a counselor not to discriminate against clients based on sexual orientation. Ward filed suit in federal district court alleging that she had been expelled because the supervisor objected to her religious beliefs on homosexuality. Also she argued that counselors are not obligated to counsel all clients about all issues. Ward further states, if a clients need conflict with the counselor’s moral conviction they can refer the client to another counselor. Approximately a year later the court denied the school’s motion to dismiss the case. The lawsuit went to district court and decided whether the schools expulsion of Ward came from the school policy or from hostility towards her religious beliefs. On behalf of the school Walter Kraft said the case was resolved in the amount of $75,000
According to NBC News Davis said, granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples would ‘‘violate God’s definition of marriage’’ and infringe on her beliefs as a Christian (Gutierrez, Ortiz, Silva, 2015). In addition, Davis tells the judge "God's moral law conflicts with my job duties’’. Kim Davis ended up being held in contempt and ordered to jail until she agreed to issue same sex marriage license. In June same-sex marriage was legalized nationwide and she is being forced to do her job within the law. Issues like these presented are very important for health care professionals because employers need to know if the workers they hire have religious beliefs that interfere with their job description. If so, those applying need to put it in writing to administrators upon starting at the company. It is no secret that the LGBT community face health disparities linked to societal stigma, discrimination, and denial of their civil and human rights (Healthy People 2020). Health professional ethics students need to decide if they want to go into a career where ones religious, moral or ethical beliefs are often tested. In the past there have been cases where healthcare workers have been pressured to perform a procedure to which they had moral, ethical or religious objections. As someone apart of the LGBT community would you want