Mark Wicclair’s defense of conscientious objection is grounded in an effort to respect the core moral beliefs of health care providers. While such a theoretical schema has merit, this paper argues that core moral beliefs should not serve as the basis of conscientious objection in health care because we, as a community, lack reliable access to a person’s core moral beliefs and because individuals are prone to be confused about the scope and extent of their core moral beliefs. Furthermore, a person’s confusion over their core moral beliefs is likely to be exacerbated when they lack time to investigate those beliefs and are under heightened external pressure to do so—both conditions frequently encountered by health care providers. Finally, the paper considers whether grounding conscientious objection in core moral beliefs might have the unintended consequence of further entrenching the practical problems that the move is aiming to solve.

Mark Wicclair 对依良心拒服兵役的辩护是基于努力尊重医疗保健提供者的核心道德信念。虽然这样的理论模式有其优点，但本文认为核心道德信念不应该作为医疗保健中依良心拒服兵役的基础，因为我们作为一个社区，缺乏获得一个人核心道德信念的可靠途径，并且因为个人倾向于对他们核心道德信念的范围和程度感到困惑。此外，当一个人没有时间调查这些信仰并且面临这样做的更大外部压力时，他们对其核心道德信仰的困惑可能会加剧——这两种情况都是医疗保健提供者经常遇到的。最后，