Review of Vischer, "Conscience and the Common Good"

In the new issue of AMERICA, here.  The concluding paragraphs:

Particularly rich is the author’s analysis of the current “pharmacist wars.” Disputes over the availability of controversial contraceptives (the product “Plan B” receives much attention here) illustrate how matters of conscience regarding personal behavior as well as corporate policies come to unfold in marketplaces and beyond. How should society provide for the seemingly conflicting rights of consumers and professional dispensers holding moral qualms about certain products? Vischer’s consistently moderate approach, with an abundance of common sense, fits the sensitive subject matter in a most commendable way.

Safeguarding the conditions of human flourishing and freedom is rarely a simple matter of fending off government intrusion or asserting one’s abstract rights. As readers of this volume will better appreciate, it turns out to involve a project of tending more deliberately to the overall social ecology, with attention to the complex ways people communicate and interact in shared spaces. Vischer’s erudite and skillful analysis highlights the thick interpersonal commitments situated within the myriad associations that mediate between individuals and the state. Only within this context will a healthy respect for conscience be guaranteed today.