| The Hippocratic Oath is a whimsical document, not worthy of taking seriously. Medical providers would be able to refuse care to patients care based on their religious beliefs - under a bill before the state Senate.
Emily Dievendorf is with the gay rights group Equality Michigan. She says Senate Bill 975 would sanction discrimination. "Under this bill, a doctor in a public hospital could refuse, because of religious beliefs, to provide health services to anybody seeking medical care based on any kind of arbitrary criteria that he feels can be supported by his or her strongly held religious belief or moral conviction."
One bill among five "conscience clause" bills. There are two that would make it possible for private adoption agencies contracted by the state to turn down potential parents for whatever reason they see fit, there is a House bill and a Senate companion that would permit counselors to turn down clients for reasons on conscience, and there is this. What it represents is the super-elevation of the invidual over the community, the parts being greater than the whole. Know what circumstances under which this would be appropriate? A medical professional who received his or her training at a school that receives no public funding and who paid for it entirely out of his or her own pocket. A medical professional whose education and training is subsidized by taxpayers has made a social contract with the public at large to treat the public at large without saying, "I object to that." In this case, it's not just a health care professional but even a health care facility. If you have a rural health care facility run by people who are intolerant of homosexuality, this leaves open the possibility that an AIDS patient might not be able to receive treatment. But, whatever, what's most important is that downtrodden religious zealots be allowed to place their own ignorance before the public's well being. |
