The state has increasingly assumed the role of arbiter of morals in Western democracies. On issues like abortion, same-sex marriage and assisted suicide, governments have enacted laws contrary to moral norms that until recently were part of a near-consensus. More intrusively, states may require citizens to act against their consciences. The state of California bans health insurance companies from offering employers coverage that limits or excludes abortion. And in the Province of Alberta in Canada, health care providers are not required to participate directly in medically assisted suicide (essentially legalized last year by the Supreme Court of Canada), but they must help refer patients to providers who will carry out the practice. A year ago, referring a patient for this purpose would constitute complicity in a crime. Today it is still complicity in an immoral procedure.
We can sympathize with legislators in a diverse society who must deal with issues in which the law conflicts with the ethical views of some citizens. (It is harder to have sympathy for officials who press citizens to act contrary to their consciences.) But any involvement of the state in moral issues raises the question: Are the public officials qualified to do this? Surveys show that politicians are not among the most trusted of people; they are rated on a par with used-car salesmen. Do we really want those who wield the coercive power of the state also to make moral judgments for us?
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