TY - JOUR T1 - Conscientious objection: unmasking the impartial spectator JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 677 LP - 678 DO - 10.1136/medethics-2019-105698 VL - 45 IS - 10 AU - Toni C Saad Y1 - 2019/10/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/45/10/677.abstract N2 - 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. ER -