Preface.

• Author: Devine, James W.

The Ave Maria Law Review presents this symposium on The Future of Rights of Conscience in Health Care: Legal and Ethical Perspectives. The participants included members of the legal and medical professions as well as ethicists remarking on the recent developments of conscience clauses and regulatory action surrounding the protection of health-care providers' conscience rights to disaffirm involvement in abortion procedures as well as the prescribing of post-coital contraceptive drugs.

Focusing on a variety of legal and ethical perspectives from patient- and professional-centered conscience restrictions, the participants have unveiled a deeper debate regarding health-care professionals' oaths to do no harm and whether patients or employers can obligate practitioners to treat conditions that have never been traditionally considered diseases. This ongoing debate is manifested by the Obama Administration's proposed repeal of the Bush Administration's Provider Conscience Rule amid the enactment of...