The act of refusing to participate in a certain type of activity for reasons of conscience. The most common example is of those people who refuse to fight in a war either because they disagree with the reasons for the war or because they feel that war itself is morally wrong. Some people who refuse to take part in the use and killing of animals, or to use the products of such activity, consider this an act of conscientious objection. Conscientious objection is also associated with the tradition of civil disobedience, in which, as a form of nonviolent protest, a person who believes generally in following the laws of the state is willing to openly break certain laws that violate basic moral values or principles of conscience.

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