Government buries conscience-rights in a grave of non-answers and ignorance

by John Smeaton, SPUC

There was an interesting set of exchanges during Tuesday's session of the House of Commons committee examining the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, extracts from which I reproduce below. In short, the Government singularly failed to answer the basic question: why are doctors allowed to exercise conscientious objection to abortion but registrars will not be allowed to exercise conscientious objection to same-sex marriage? The best – and most chilling – attempt at an answer by the government was the following from Hugh Robertson MP, the minister:
"I spent some time as a young man in the Army, and there are plenty of cases in which the Government take a decision and expect public servants to carry it out … What I do know, and what I absolutely believe in personally, is that if the House passes a piece of legislation, there is a duty on public servants to carry it out. That duty is part of a process in a democracy… Registrars are public servants. If a Bill is passed in this House with a very considerable majority, as was the case on Second Reading—I do not know what will happen in future—then registrars, as public servants, are under an obligation to carry out the duties contained in that Bill, plain and simple."
Read the rest here.