Issue date: 3/15/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Emily Buerger A nationwide survey of 1,144 doctors found that 14 percent of physicans feel they are not required to tell patients about medical options they oppose morally. These options include teen birth control.

A nationwide survey of 1,144 doctors found that 14 percent of physicans feel they are not required to tell patients about medical options they oppose morally. These options include abortion and teen birth control. 29 percent believe they have no duty to refer patients elsewhere for treatment.

"Moral conflicts are inevitable in an imperfect world," Timothy Lent, adjunct religious studies, said. "A person who is looking for a physician should find out what his or her world view is."

The American Medical Association gives doctors the right to decline to give a treatment sought by an individual that is "incompatible with the physician's personal, religious or moral beliefs." But the doctor should try to ensure the patient has "access to adequate" health care.

"Every person, whether religious or not, has a world view, that is basic views about right and wrong," Lent said. "As I say in my classes, wherever human beings go they carry their baggage with them."

The study found that 86 percent of those responding believe doctors should be required to present all treatment options, and 71 percent believe they must refer patients to another specialist for treatment. While more than half believe the physician had no such obligation.

"Any physician who has a personal objection to abortion has an obligation to follow their conscience and not in any way refer or suggest abortion as an alternative to pregnancy," Mr. Patrick Stokely, adjunct religious studies, said. "If a physician were to do so, they would be directly cooperating in an act that the Catholic Church has determined to be intrinsically evil."

The survey did not explore whether these physicians act on their beliefs, but the researchers calculated that tens of millions of Americans might be going to such doctors.

"If the patient were to themselves bring up abortion as an option, the physician would need to state that they do not do them and tell the patient that they would need to find another physician who would," Stokely said.

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