21/06/2010 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development
Strasbourg, 21.06.2010 – Considering the fact that the practice of conscientious objection arises in the field of health care when healthcare providers refuse to provide certain health services based on religious, moral or philosophical objections, the Health Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) today called on European governments to develop regulations that define conscientious objection in that field.
The draft resolution, prepared by Christine McCafferty (, SOC), emphasizes the need “to balance the right of conscientious objection of an individual not to perform a certain medical procedure” with the responsibility of the profession and “the right of each patient to access lawful medical care in a timely manner”.
The regulations should “guarantee the right to conscientious objection only to individual healthcare providers directly involved in the performance of the procedure in question, and not to public/state institutions such as public hospitals and clinics as a whole”.
Healthcare providers should be obliged to provide “the desired treatment to which the patient is legally entitled despite [the healthcare provider’s] conscientious objection in cases of emergency (notably danger to the patient’s health or life), or when referral to another healthcare provider is not possible (in particular when there is no equivalent practitioner within reasonable distance).”
The draft resolution is due to be debated by the Parliamentary Assembly during its next Autumn plenary Session (4-8 October 2010).