Catholic Review Online: Health care workers urged to fight for conscience rights
The Catholic Review contains two stories which touch on the conscience rights of physicians that are in jeopardy. George P. Matysek, Jr. covers the symposium on conscience rights that took place May 9th at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson . This was the first symposium of what may become an annual event to be sponsored by Archbishop Edwin O'Brien. Dr. Janet Smith of Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit gave the keynote address: In the keynote address, Dr. Janet Smith, Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, outlined the church’s teachings on conscience – emphasizing that conscience isn’t an opinion about what’s right and wrong; it is “listening to the voice of God within.” “There is an erroneous view of conscience that says individuals independently are faced with their own truth,” Dr. Smith said. Addressing the church’s teachings on sexuality, Dr. Smith said the sexual act “should express a willingness to have a lifetime