Freedom Of Conscience Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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One might understand the concept of conscience as a judicial concept whereby, on reflection, we retrospectively make a personal judgment about what we did. The judicial conscience results from personal values or internal judgments, engaging in a subjective evaluation of our prior actions. An intuitive notion, the retrospective approach to conscience is strongly associated with moral and value-oriented evaluations. Such evaluations might lead one to suffer from a guilty conscience given prior actions that are, in retrospect, deemed incorrect.

Conscience also acts as a prospective concept, serving a legislative role in directing a person’s actions and providing a broader framework for consideration and evaluation of future events. Conscience in the legislative sense results from a met judgment closely linked to one’s essential moral commitments, creating a disposition to act pursuant to one’s fundamental beliefs and self-identifying moral principles. It is a self-conscious activity to create self-committed decisions about what is right and wrong.

Thus, a pacifist belief dictates a refusal to use weapons against another human being, resulting in military conscientious objection and a refusal to engage in any form of military service requiring or supporting the use of arms against another. There even have been instances of pacifists’ conscientiously refusing to pay a portion of their income tax, against the percentage of monetary resources dedicated to the support of the military.

The legislative role of conscience has been subject to greater analysis and consideration given its potential to alter the future behavior of individuals. Thus, respect for the prospective nature of conscience has resulted in the emergence of a human right to freedom of conscience as a protected belief, one that is closely associated with, and at times even comparable to, the importance accorded to a religious belief and its attendant freedom(s).

Internal And External Nature Of Conscience

Conscience in the legislative sense leads to the instillation of a conscientious belief. Such a belief is composed of an internal aspect, the forum internum, involving the development of one’s conscientious belief system, and the forum externum, whereby one externally manifests a conscientious belief.

The forum internum relates to the ability to mentally develop, and eventually adhere to, conscientious beliefs, creating the groundwork for future external behavior. This evaluative, cognitive, conscientious process shapes and develops a belief into a structured set of cognitive directives or imperatives that mandate particular and specific external action (or inaction). A belief system centered on the importance of human life will dictate the type of actions that one may hold to be morally unacceptable to undertake against another (such as to perform an abortion) pursuant to the beliefs that have internally shaped and formed.

An ensuing conscientious decision to act personifies that person’s approach to moral action for both that particular action and similar future situations. A conscientious belief manifests when the belief requires a particular form of practice. One must discern a link between the action and the particular practice demanded from the belief system. The forum externum then results from an internal-driven process to create a set of mandates that merit manifestation of one’s conscientious beliefs as external actions taken in pursuance of a belief. Manifestation of a conscientious belief reflects the standard developed in the forum internum, as manifestation of a conscientious belief relates to an application of specific and crucial principles deriving from the belief. Thus, a medical practitioner harboring a conscientious belief concerning the importance of human life even in its earliest stages might refuse when asked to cooperate in certain medical actions, such as abortions. The conscientious belief manifests to prevent the individual from performing an action contrary to the belief itself.

Unlike a religious belief, however, which is (generally) associated with a set of stated principles and norms, the scope of manifestation for a conscientious belief is a vexing issue due to problems of proof regarding the existence of a particular conscientious belief and demonstrating one’s actual belief in the asserted principles. Nonetheless, a conscientious believer desires to adhere to an asserted conscientious belief regardless of the outcome. What is important is the manifestation of a conscientious belief to ensure the maintenance of the belief. Prevention of the desired action or inaction will not only impede its performance but also generate an unyielding predicament that can serve to thwart the internal conscientious belief as well.

Conscience As A Human Right

Given the importance of the development and manifestation of a conscientious belief, the notion of conscience as a protected human right has emerged in both domestic and international frameworks. The scope of the right remains unclear, however, since in many instances, the right is associated with a religious belief at the expense of allowing for the manifestation of a conscientious belief.

For example, the principal allowance for conscience as a human right is its association with pacifism, as many states recognize the right of military conscientious objection. A military conscientious objector asserts a conscientious belief, such as against the bearing of arms, whereby the requested action by the state, participating in the military, entails a direct conflict with the belief. States might provide an exemption from military service or an option of alternative military service that does not involve the use of military weapons. The problem is that many states limit conscientious objection solely to religious-based contentions, at the expense of conscientious beliefs that also merit manifestation and protection, such as when emanating from a nonreligious pacifist who asserts a conscience-based belief in not using weapons of any sort.

Conscientious belief also maintains legal protection in international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 18, and the European Convention on Human Rights, article 9. For example, the attendant oversight committee of the International Covenant, the Human Rights Committee, has stated that the capacity for military conscientious objection applies to all forms of beliefs, both religious and otherwise, thereby including conscientious beliefs as well. By contrast, the European Court on Human Rights has held that the European Convention does not necessarily provide for the right to military conscientious objection as the right of exemption is left to the decision of a state.

In his 2009 report, the United Nations Human Rights Council–appointed special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief referred to nontheistic and atheistic beliefs that merit protection against discrimination, such as in the field of education. The understanding was that conscientious beliefs are entitled to some form of protection against state discrimination, such as in state schools mandating daily religious prayer for all students or providing universal religious instruction. Previous rapporteurs had also called on states to recognize and apply the right to military conscientious objection and provide the means for alternative service.

Finally, the potential capacity for additional forms of conscientious objection merits noting. This includes conscientious objection in the medical field, such as objecting to the performance of abortions or euthanasia; claiming refugee status after feeling a state denied a person the right to military conscientious objection; and the capacity for selective conscientious objection (wherein a specific military action is conducted in a manner contrary to one’s conscientious belief).

Bibliography:

Childress, James. “Appeals to Conscience.” Ethics 89 (1979): 315–335.
D’Arcy, Eric. Conscience and Its Right to Freedom. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1961.
Hammer, Leonard. The International Human Right to Freedom of Conscience: Some Suggestions for Its Development and Application. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2001.
Jahangir, Asma. Promotion and Protection of all Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Including the Rights to Development. Report of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. A/HRC/10/8, January 6, 2009.
Moskos, Charles, and John Chambers, eds. The New Conscientious Objection from Sacred to Secular Resistance. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
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Zecha, Gerhard, and Paul Weingartner, eds. Conscience: An Interdisciplinary View. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Reidel, 1987.