Volume 29, Number 2
January 2025
ARTICLE

The Overweighted Integrity Problem: Conscience, Complicity, and Moral Standing

Volume 29, Number 2, January 2025, Pages 159–187
https://doi.org/10.26556/jesp.v29i2.3558
PDFPDF
MP3

Abstract

Most states in the United States have conscience laws protecting conscientious refusal to perform some medical service. Yet many state conscience laws protect providers from being even indirectly involved with some procedure they find objectionable, which can include not only referrals but also simply informing patients of medically indicated but morally contentious options. I argue that such policies are unjust, offering too much protection for integrity in the face of competing values and patient interests. In other words, these policies grant too much weight to integrity. One promising response to this concern is that in addition to integrity, the state should protect professionals so that they avoid complicity that could undermine their moral right to hold others accountable. I argue that this response fails, since it is implausible that these professionals actually lose that right in such contexts. I conclude that these policies should be restricted to better protect patient interests.
Copyright © 2025 Kyle G. Fritz
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license.
|

Forgiving the Mote in Your Sister’s Eye: On Standingless Forgiveness

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

How Not to Defend Moral Blame

Andreas Leonhard Menges

Enclaves for the Excluded: A Pessimistic Defense

Jamie Draper

Sulking into Sex: Blame, Coercion, and Consent

Sumeet Patwardhan

Letting Animals Off the Hook

Nicolas Delon

The Point of Blaming ai Systems

Hannah Altehenger and Leonhard Menges

Dismissing Blame

Justin Snedegar

How to Be Morally Responsible for Another’s Free Intentional Action

Olle Blomberg

Inclusive Blameworthiness and the Wrongfulness of Causing Harm

Evan Tiffany

Attributionist Group Agent Responsibility

Adam Piovarchy

Ethical Veganism and Free Riding

Jacob Barrett and Sarah Zoe Raskoff

Addressed Blame and Hostility

Benjamin De Mesel

Portico