Conscience clauses are legal clauses attached to laws in some parts of the United States which permit pharmacists, physicians, and other providers of health care not to provide certain medical services for reasons of religion or conscience.

Colonel Mulligan finally permitted only physicians and ministers to visit the prisoners after April 12, 1862.

To the Editor: In "Shame on the Dutch" (Op-Ed, Feb. 27), Walter Reich deplores the Dutch Parliament's passing legislation permitting physicians to perform mercy deaths.

In the past, officials at the Sophie Davis School, which is on the City College campus in northern Manhattan, permitted physicians to fulfill their obligation by working in urban and rural areas of New York State.

In early October, a poll showed that 61 percent of the likely voters in Washington State favored Initiative 119, the ballot measure that would have permitted physicians to help terminally ill patients commit suicide or even kill them at their request.

In New York, bills proposed by Governor Cuomo and others, including Stephen C. Joseph, the New York City Health Commissioner, would permit, but not require, physicians to notify the sexual partners of patients infected with the AIDS virus even if the patient objects.

"Against Dr. Sah's express policy, Tom Vu had permitted physicians to routinely perform cosmetic surgeries," Mr. Rubin said in a court filing, apparently referring to Mr. Pham by one of the names he also used.

The courts have issued a series of rulings that have permitted physicians to circumvent the constitutional ban on euthanasia under carefully prescribed conditions.

With his desire to further understand the condition of the intestine, Crosby developed the Crosby Capsule, a biopsy pod which permitted physicians to non-invasively acquire samples of small intestine tissue.