Law Commons^™

The Hollow Promise Of Freedom Of Conscience, Nadia N. Sawicki

Nadia N. Sawicki

Two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson asserted that no law “ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority." Since then, freedom of conscience has continued to be heralded as a fundamental principle of American society. Indeed, many current policy debates – most notably in the medical and military contexts – are predicated on the theory that claims of conscience are worthy of legal respect. This Article challenges established assumptions, concluding that claims about the importance of conscience in American society have been highly exaggerated.

This Article first …

The Abortion Informed Consent Debate: More Light, Less Heat, Nadia N. Sawicki

Nadia N. Sawicki

State abortion informed consent laws – including those requiring physicians to disclose that abortion terminates the life of a “whole, separate, unique, living human being” or display ultrasound images to patients seeking abortions – are being adopted at a rapid pace. Health law scholars who oppose these laws uniformly criticize them as being fundamentally inconsistent with the doctrine of informed consent. This Article directly challenges this conventional approach. It argues that the doctrine of informed consent does not impose nearly as significant a barrier to abortion disclosure laws as many critics claim. Rather, the ethical and legal principles of informed …