A year ago I
sat between a Catholic priest and a bioethicist on a panel1 debating President Bush's initiative
to extend 'antidiscrimination' protections to health professionals who refuse
to perform a 'legal medical service or procedure' for 'reasons of conscience.'
These 'civil rights' protections were designed to protect health professionals
against their professional societies and their employers who, the Bush
administration claimed, 'would force physicians to either violate their
conscience by referring patients for abortions . . . or
risk losing their board certification,' or their job. As Assistant Secretary of
Health Garcia, MD, explained, 'health providers shouldn't have to check their
conscience at the hospital door. The proposed rule will help ensure that
doesn't happen.'2
