El derecho a la objeción de conciencia en el supuesto del aborto

Abstract

Conscientious objection refers to the non-performance by an individual of a given obligation of legal nature on moral grounds, because the performance of that obligation would seriously hurt the own conscience.

From the very origins of Democracy, respect for the freedom of conscience has been considered as one of most fundamental rights, since it is assumed that human liberty and dignity must prevail, even over and above the State itself.

The right to conscientious objection can be understood as the external dimension of ideological freedom and the freedom of conscience. This right, as an essential pillar of any Democracy, bears special relevance in the bioethical debate by being a very proper way to solve, in a democratic system, the unavoidable conflicts that the tension between legality and justice generates.

In the past few decades, the right to conscientious objection has developed all its implicitness in those countries where abortion legalization laws have been passed. Sanitary professions have a clear horizon and a precise meaning: care and respect for the life, health and integrity of all human beings. Consequently, when a legal rule wounds, violates or contradicts this principle, sound reasons arise to support the sanitary actors’ right to conscientious objection.