Protection of Conscience Laws are needed because powerful interests are inclined to force health care workers and others to participate, directly or indirectly, in morally controversial procedures. Nurses and others have already been denied employment, dismissed, or penalized because of objections to abortion and artificial contraception. The same pressure will almost certainly be applied to force people to participate in reproductive technology, eugenic screening, and in euthanasia and assisted suicide, particularly where such things are legal or are tolerated.