Conscientious Provision of Care

The four articles in the Hastings Center Report's July-August 2024 issue make for an eclectic mix. The lead article, to which two commentaries respond, makes the case that the legal protections for conscientious objection in medicine should be counterbalanced by legal protections for clinicians who, against the religious or moral policies of the hospitals where they work, conscientiously provide referrals for medical interventions that are prohibited in those facilities. Two other articles focus on the ethics of normothermic regional perfusion, a controversial surgical procedure in transplantation medicine. The final article explores the risks and benefits of having aspiring therapists in the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) undergo their own PAT as part of their training.