Scary.
We all know that I enjoy a hard-line approach between religion and life. Practice your religion all you want, but don't interfere with MY life. Or my medical treatment.
I'm sorry. I think that when one takes the Hippocratic oath and becomes a Doctor, he is bound to fully inform the patient of ALL medical alternatives. Allowing religion to influence medical treatment options is the province of the patient, not the Doctor. If I am against having a pig's heart, I'll tell you. But you don't get to decide whether I can have one or not, just because you keep Kosher. And you don't get to deny me treatment because I'm gay and you don't like that. And you don't get to abstain from prescribing me the Morning After pill because you don't believe in abortions. My body. My choice. Your religion. Your choice. I've said it again, and I'll say it again, and again, and again, and again. Keep YOUR religion off MY body.
In my mind, it's COMPLETE medical malpractice, and something falling between Medical Incompetence/Gross Negligence and Malicious Infliction of Physical Harm on a patient, for a physician's religious views to direct the course of a patient's medical treatment.
You want to be a doctor? That's great. Be a doctor. But whether you're Jewish or Christian or Wicca or a Satanist, your particular religious views have no place in directing my course of treatment, and your personal ethics are never to come into play when, as a patient, I need you to provide me with treatment. I took an Oath to uphold the Constitution of the US and Florida. Sometimes, I disagree with what I'm doing, but it's my job. You took an oath to cure people. You may disagree, but it's your job. You don't like it? Find another job. Or, at least be absolutely forthright with your patients, letting them know that you will allow your religious views to interfere with possible treatment options.
As patients, we don't know all of the options out there, and if a physician withholds a course of treatment, because of his personal beliefs... how am I, as a sick person, going to become fully informed of my options, unless 1) you tell me; 2) I do voluminious research on the subject, while, you know, very sick; or 3) I go for, potentially, second, third and fourth opinions.
Am I the only one who thinks this is really scary and completely inappapropriate?
posted by SuperBee at 8:45 AM
11 Comments:
You're gay?!
I don't believe in "homosexuality". You are a sinner and by reading your blog, I have become a sinner. I'm going to go say 8 million hail marys and cry alot.
12:51 PM
Laura - yes. Angry me make article.
Adrienne - Yeah. And your behavior - crying and praying, would be any different than a typical Friday or Saturday night with you...how? ;)
1:02 PM
Read the original article again. Dr. B. presents all options to all 15,000 of his patients who choose to attend his clinic. In fact, he has a waiting list of women who want to join Tepeyac Family Center. It comes down to an individual woman's choice.
1:27 PM
I attend this clinic and am very thankful that it exists. No one is forcing you to attend this clinic. You have choices. Tepeyac is very upfront about its position on contraception and abortion.
And since when was fertility a disease? It would seem that prescribing birth control pills for the purpose of a suppressing an otherwise healthy reproductive system is actually contrary to the Hippocratic Oath.
1:53 PM
No, you read my blog posting again, Anonymous.
I'm speaking in general terms about this being a scary trend; I'm not talking about one individual doctor.
I'm talking about the trend of pharmacists at Wal-Mart not dispensing birth control drugs or morning-after pills; I'm discussing the practice in general of medical professionals on whom we rely to give us all of our options, and the fact that I think it's bordering on a criminal action for them to allow their beliefs to feed into a patient's care.
Nowhere in my blog posting did I single out the Tepeyac Family Center.
If people elect their treatment to consist of dances with crucifixes, and "family planning" as responsible contraception, while I think those patients would be just as well off wearing a cone of cinnamon around their nose and repeating Hail Marys to ward off the Black Death, and sacrificing chicken entrails to Ra, that's their deal.
I think it's irresponsible and DANGEROUS to allow Doctors to only present those options to Patients. There's a reason that witch doctors and apothecaries aren't licensed to practice medicine. Because what they're practicing...isn't medicine.
Right now I have a sore throat (again.) I could pray my little heart out for my infection to go away. But it's not going to do me a damn bit of good. So, tomorrow, I'm off to the Doctor to get some good old-fashioned antibiotics.
I would hit the fucking roof if I went to my 2:00 p.m. appointment tomorrow to get some drugs, and was told to "Pray over the three-day weekend" for my throat to get better -- that it was a punishment from God.
What if I didn't know any better than to get a second opinion? What if I was told that that was the only way to make my throat better, and I was uneducated and believed it!?
That's my issue. A Doctor's religious views should have absolutely no place in a patient's care, unless the Patient knowingly waives his or her right to hear all of his or her options.
1:58 PM
Oh lord. I have crazy people reading my blog. That's right. You're crazy.
Said it, meant it. Pills are a wonderful thing. So is Chicken Soup on Rosh Hashannah. But Pills are better.
Suppressing ovulation is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath? I'll do you one better - Is having a nose-job on an otherwise healthy nose a violation of the Hippocratic Oath? Stomach-stapling a violation of the Hippocratic Oath? We need to breathe to survive, right? We need to eat? Breast augmentation/reduction? Is that a violation?
Is the religious right harping on those issues? The dangers of nosejobs? The dangers of boob jobs? No.
Not a wedge issue. Not capable of motivating voter turnout.
And has a Doctor ever declined to perform a nosejob on religious grounds? Probably not.
Although forgotten by the New Testament, any good Jew knows that it's a biblical abomination to have anything pierced, tattooed, amputated or otherwise changed on their body...
So why no outrage about nosejobs? Pierced ears? Crucifix tattoos?
Isn't the Old Testament just as much a part of the Christian religion?
2:19 PM
1) I think it's great that you have people with radically different views reading and commenting on your blog. It makes for an interesting discussion. Having said that, it would be nice to see them respond to your posts rather than do a "hit-and-run" post.
2) These is one of the scariest quotes I've seen in an article: "We're trying to get doctors to see that contraception is not good medical practice."
3) Tepeyac (and places like it) is EXTRA dangerous because "it is a nonprofit clinic that takes uninsured patients." Take a glut of uninsured and often lower-income patients who have no options other than this and you'll end up with a lot of people who more or less HAVE to live with medical care that is in the doctor's best interests, not theirs.
3:57 PM
Having said that, it would be nice to see them respond to your posts rather than do a "hit-and-run" post.
***************
I'm always up for a civilized discussion, but being called "crazy" makes me think this thread is going in the wrong direction. Ad hominem attacks are fruitless discussion killers.
8:17 PM
If I wasn't a better person, I would have written the following:
::eyeroll::
Whoooooomp, whooooooomp.
Smug sanctimony. Shocking.
But I would never write such a thing.
8:33 PM
To the first anonymous: Pregnancy may be natural, but it is a potentially life threatening condition. What is wrong with trying to prevent this from occurring?
5:59 AM
To: Anonymous
RE: Dead Baby Pills Suppressing a Healthy Reproductive System
So when one receives chemotherapy to suppress an otherwise healthy immune system in hopes of stoppingg cancer, it is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath?
Birth Control pills serve other purposes such as menstrual regulation and prevention of future reproductive problems. Get your mind out of the gutter.
If one's religion is about choice and choosing the correct path, why not respect everyone else's choice?
3:43 PM
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