Conscientious Objection

The use of the term conscientious objection typically refers to a person who refuses on religious or moral grounds to participate in a mandated professional activity or duty, such as a pharmacist who refuses to issue a prescription for a morning-after pill or a draftee who resists required military service. Conscientious objection may be a legal violation motivated by the individual's belief that he or she is morally prohibited from following such law, usually because the law itself is considered wrong in some way. However, the resistance may not rise to the level of a legal violation, such as when conscientious refusal is written into the law as a justifiable exception to the rule.

For instance, religious exceptions to medical interventions are allowed under law, often with a signed waiver, as with parents who refuse lifesaving surgery or blood transfusion for a child due to religious beliefs. Conscientious objection, which is typically an individual belief-motivated act of resistance, differs somewhat from civil disobedience, which tends toward drawing public attention to willingness to break the law in the pursuit of social justice. In the criminal justice system, individuals sometimes interact with police and other justice officials in ways that show their non-cooperation or collective resistance, and these can demonstrate ethical concerns with particular criminal justice policy or practice.

In the area of criminal justice, ethical debates surrounding policing and correctional practices demonstrate individuals who act, often in nonviolent ways, to resist police and correctional authority or policy, and occasionally to express particular oppositional beliefs symbolically. These individuals in justice settings can be considered conscientious objectors to particular justice officials or criminal justice practices. Sometimes conscientious objection is an act of last resort, in which other more conventional challenges to authority have been exhausted or otherwise are closed off as options for the individual. Conscientious objection is an act of resistance, as individuals without power or authority attempt to voice their concerns in ways that question the potentially unlawful or inhumane practice of those with power.