Alan Jacobs is always interesting and thoughtful and this piece is no exception. Stanley Fish thinks that physicians with a conscience should get out of the biz—so much for the Hippocratic Oath!— and Jacobs replies with an appeal to Sandy Koufax, Hank Greenberg, and an imaginary every-day outfielder who happens to be Sabbatarian.
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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Interesting. Although, dispensing birth control for pharmacists and granting no-fault divorces for judges seem like more regular occurrences than terminating pregnancies for doctors. Maybe doctors have more of a leg to stand on when pleading protection of personal morality over vocational demands, and would-be pharmacists and judges might do better to reassess their vocational aspirations. (And why are “life issues” always at the center here? Don’t NT imperatives have more to say about the sexual ethics that precipitate them in the first place?)
But even more interesting to me is the sub-text of individual rights here, that great American howl, from lifers to choicers to certain professionals. I hate sounding misty-eyed for the past, but wasn’t there a day when people knew better how to live in a world not designed exactly for them?