Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Do unto others

Fundamentalist Christian doctors want the right to exclude legal treatments they don't approve of, whether they're medically appropriate or not. These people have a preschooler's understanding of the golden rule: If they like vanilla ice cream, everyone should have vanilla ice cream, even people who prefer chocolate. Even people who are lactose intolerant. Even people who are allergic to the point of anaphylactic shock to it.

Personally, I'm not willing to have to take a religious history in the emergency room when the doctor should be taking my medical history. If I wanted a crackpot, I'd be somewhere else.

8 comments:

Bob Jann said...

Your own view is uninformed. This ruling change will require that physicians will lose their own civil rights. What this really means is that physician students will be compelled to perform abortions as part of their training. The result of this will be fewer American physicians (especially but not only OBGYNs) as fewer students opt for a education that costs well over $200,000, is identified with abortion and not obstetrics,whose income is restricted by third party insurance companies, and whose professional liability rates are now so high that American physicians are leaving the speciality.

Anonymous said...

Medical schools teach ethics as part of the required ciriculum. Doctors that go though years of education and still enter into this profession and then cry foul are breaking the oaths they've taken. Besides if they don't want to perform abortions or give out birth control can specialize in a practice that will not violate their "moral" views. If they were cops surprised that they might have to use a gun we'd laugh ourselve silly. This is no different. Physicians give up (as another poster called them - I don't) their right to refuse medical care when they chose this profession.

Anonymous said...

Why don't you read the ACTUAL Hippocratic Oath to see why we entered this field?

DMGMD said...

I am a Physician. I am Pro-Choice. I don't personally want to perform abortions, so I didn't go into OB/Gyn (but then again I don't want to see patients without surgical problems). Physicians have NO right to push their religious beliefs onto the patient. Period. End of story. If these Fundamentalist Physicians don't want to provide the necessary treatment then they should either get out of medicine, or find a specialty that won't conflict with their beliefs. Same goes for Pharmacists, Nurses, or whomever. Bob Jann, the result of this ruling will have NO impact on the number of people entering the profession, and will have no impact on so-called "abortion training" because that's not part of the standard curriculum in medical school, it is however in OB/Gyn. Luckily there aren't that many "fundamentalists" in medicine. Probably because "Intelligent Design" isn't taught in med school.

Anonymous said...

The "christians" should keep their beliefs to themselves and not put them on other people. They are bound by the laws of the US and the law of the land trumps any "law" taken from some book of ancient middle eastern fairy tales. If they don't want to provide these services, then get out of the field and make room for those who do.

lovable liberal said...

I actually have no problem with OB/GYNs opting out of providing abortion. The problem I have is them victimizing their patients by refusing to inform them fully. That is not within their rights, and that is what Duhbya's fundie exception gave them.

Anonymous said...

Who do they think they are? God? Abortion is a legal medical procedure. If Christian doctors don't want to perform it, they should change to another speciality and remove their objections to the teaching of abortion in medical schools. If the legal right to abortion is protected and doctors performing abortions are protected, then other doctors will perform them. We don't need or want a doctor's religion to be the deciding factor in whether we get access or are informed about any legal medical procedure.

Marge said...

I had to laugh when I read the article. Who the hell would want medical advice from the janitor, so why should he/she have a say about if an abortion should be preformed in the building they're cleaning the toilets in? Get a grip nation. If a doc and his staff want to opt out, they should be required to post this large and loud in their waiting rooms. Nothing would piss me off more than helping put my docs kids through private school only to find out when I need their help the most, its screw you sucker, I don't do birth control or abortions. Same for the pharmacists. I'll take my business somewhere else. It's best to be proactive these days and find out your doc, nurse practioner, pharmacists, hospital of choice, etc., position on these matters before you make committments of your time and money only to find out it all went to waste.