Professor Joseph Raz discusses various aspects of what it means to be a conscientious objector.
“What has been termed ‘selective refusal’ is nothing other than ordinary conscientious objection. The government, whose laws are being infringed, classifies conscientious objection of one sort as selective and of another sort as not selective. This classification has no significance for the objectors themselves. They oppose what they see as necessitating opposition; their conscience obliges them to refuse precisely that. If they oppose any and all war, any and all war is what they must refuse. If they perceive a particular war, the use of a particular weapon, etc., as prohibited, then that’s what they must refuse. They cannot be more, or less, selective. They are bound by their conscience, and cannot stretch it or shrink it on demand.”