Sterile, religiously neutral, and colourblind: on religious symbols in healthcare

Naoual El Yattouti

Medical Law Review, 2025, vol. 33, issue 3, 14.

Abstract: This article explores the right of caregivers to wear religious dress in Europe, focusing on four countries: France, Belgium, the UK, and the Netherlands. It highlights the varying approaches to secularism, with stricter scrutiny on prohibitions in the UK and the Netherlands, while France and Belgium lean towards a form of outward neutrality that prohibits religious symbols, particularly in public services. While prohibitions on religious dress for caregivers might aim to protect the rights to equal treatment of patients, it raises concerns about its compatibility with equality law. Despite a shared European human rights framework, these policies result in inconsistent legal outcomes across countries, challenging the principles of non-discrimination and religious freedom. The article also questions the justification of blanket bans under health and safety standards, emphasizing the need for reasonable accommodation. Furthermore, it stresses that any restrictions on religious dress that are in place to protect the rights and freedoms of others should be based on objective, evidence-based reasoning. In this sense, patients’ perceptions of religious symbols should not be generalized, especially considering the rights of minoritized or religious patients.

Keywords: caregivers; culturally appropriate care; health and safety; non-discrimination; religious freedom; religious neutrality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/medlaw/fwaf023 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:medlaw:v:33:y:2025:i:3:p:14.

Access Statistics for this article

Medical Law Review is currently edited by Professor Sara Fovargue and Professor Jose Miola

More articles in Medical Law Review from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().