Legal opinion on the on the conformity with the Constitution of a parliamentary bill to amend the Act on Health Care Services Financed from Public Funds and the Act on the Professions of Doctor and Dentist

Abstract

This opinion deals with a bill which limits doctors right to conscientious objection in medical relations. The author claims that the bill imposes on doctors disproportionate limitations of their constitutionally protected freedom of conscience (Article 53 of the Constitution). The bill does not prove that the proposed regulation is actually necessary for the protection of other constitutional values. It was emphasized that legal enforcement of the performance of controversial medical services by those who have raised ethical doubts about some of these services, undermines the essence of the freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution and, consequently, the guarantees of State’s ideological impartiality and freedom of expression of religious or philosophical beliefs in public life