A
Call to Action
We
believe it is not in our best interest to remain in a defensive
position on these issues. Remember, the best defense is a good
offense. Nurses and other healthcare professionals must take the
lead in the battle for civil rights. Unity, knowledge, perseverance
and courage are our weapons.
•
Stand firm to assert your own civil liberties in the workplace.
•
Support others who assert theirs.
•
Unite with others who work in health care to protect conscience
rights for all
•
Write to lawmakers at all levels of government: local, state,
federal.
•
Vote for public officials that will fight for our civil rights.
•
Write letters to newspaper editors.
•
Boycott businesses that support unethical practices.
•
Communicate the message to coworkers and the public.
•
Refuse to support unions that oppose your ethical values.
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Join and support other organizations that share your ideology.
•
Volunteer for organizations with moral and ethical beliefs similar
to your own.
•
Charitably educate those with opposing values coupled with the
loss of conscience rights, could mean that nurses would be required
to administer lethal drugs that doctors would be required to prescribe
to a patient who may or may not consent to being killed.
A
few states have enacted laws protecting pharmacists but many other
states, including California, are currently entertaining legislation
that could deny pharmacists’ conscience rights.
California
along with most of the United States of America suffers from a
nursing shortage. Yet many of our legislators have expressed opinions
that people in the health professions should not be permitted
to exercise conscience. In 2006 the Chair of the California Assembly
Judiciary Committee, for example, stated that people who object
to providing any legalized services such as abortion and physician
assisted suicide if eventually legalized should not enter the
health care professions. He expressed an opinion that any patient
should be able to demand any legal service from any healthcare
professional even in violation of the provider’s conscience
and even though a patient can get the services from someone else.
He said that conscientious objectors should seek careers elsewhere.
This philosophy, put into practice, would be very damaging to
our society. It would lead to even greater nursing shortages as
droves of nurses would have to withdraw from the profession. Other
categories of health professionals would be similarly affected.
It
makes absolutely no sense to compel individuals to act against
their consciences, especially in view of shortages in various
healthcare professions. There is no freedom unless all are free.
That means that the civil rights of pharmacists, doctors, nurses,
and all other healthcare entities must be protected. No one should
have a right to violate another’s rights. A patient’s
right to procure certain services stops where that choice violates
the rights of other individuals.
The nationwide trend of attack on conscience
affects all who are involved in the healthcare industry. An attack
on one is an attack on every one. We must stand together to protect
conscience rights universally. Even those whose ideologies differ
from those of CNES should recognize the danger to their own constitutional
and civil rights should conscience rights be abolished for some.
