Doctors’ moral beliefs and public policy

This is my PhD thesis, which looks at three related questions:

1. Suppose we legalise some controversial medical practice tomorrow. Should we respect the moral objections of those doctors who object to the practice?
2. When the objections of doctors conflict with the interests of patients, how do we balance these two demands, and is there scope for compromise?
3. In circumstances where prioritising patients’ interests means that we will eventually decide to overrule doctors’ moral objections, how might we expect doctors to respond to this, and is there anything we can do to reduce the harm to them?

Rather oddly, the PhD was awarded jointly by two British universities, York and Hull, since these two share a medical school.