PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Toni C Saad
TI  - Conscientious objection: unmasking the impartial spectator
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2019-105698
DP  - 2019 Oct 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 677--678
VI  - 45
IP  - 10
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/45/10/677.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/45/10/677.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2019 Oct 01; 45
AB  - Hoping to bring some objectivity to the debate, Ben-Moshe has argued that conscientious objection in medicine should be accommodated based on its concordance with the ‘impartial spectator’, a metaphor for conscience drawn from the writings of Adam Smith. This response finds fault with this account on two fronts: first, that its claim to objectivity is unsubstantiated; second, that it implicitly relies on moral absolutes, despite claiming that conscience is a social construct, thereby calling its coherence and claims into question. Briefly, a traditional account of conscience is then described, before ending with a related thesis for future discussion.