Physicians' primary obligations are to their patients, without a doubt.
They have other obligations, of course, including to wider society, to
their professional colleagues, both physicians and other health care
professionals, to their employing institutions, and to their own ethical
codes (which may or may not accord completely with their personal
religious convictions.) We know that many physicians have strong moral
objections to carrying out certain procedures for religious reasons- e.g.
Catholics and abortion. But they must tell their patients that that is
the case, and be honest with them. And they must advise them to go elsewhere
if the patients hold other and differing religious views. To pretend
that physicians' own religious views trump those of their patients or wider
society is both arrogant and wrong-headed.
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