Should Medical Providers be allowed to refuse treatment?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wildkow @ Aug 5 2007, 12:17 PM) [snapback]490901[/snapback]</div>

I'll save this as an example of a personal attack.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 5 2007, 09:32 AM) [snapback]490853[/snapback]</div>

Of course, I don't want a physician without any ethics or morals. But a Physician that chooses that field better be prepared for some compromise.

I don't want to go to an emergency room and bleed to death because a physician won't work on the Sabbath and he refuses to touch me until it's the "next day". Should a Christian Scientist be allowed to be a doctor and then refuse to prescribe any medication because it's against his religion?

Do all of the hospitals and emergency rooms in Israel shut down from sundown Friday until sundown on Saturday?

Do the hospitals in Muslim countries import doctors so their women can get medical treatment?

And there are doctors that perform illegal acts on ethical and moral grounds. I'm talking about mercy-killing here. Doctors that overprescribe morphine to a terminally ill cancer patient to end suffering. Don't tell me it doesn't happen.

If a Doctor can commit an illegal act on ethical and moral grounds, they should be able to commit a legal act, even if it violates their personal ethics and morals. Like prescribe the morning after pill in a timely manner so that it is actually effective. That's a time-sensitive prescription. If I've been raped I want it NOW. I don't want to have to be referred from office to office trying to get a prescription.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wildkow @ Aug 5 2007, 01:14 PM) [snapback]490919[/snapback]</div>

Why would a patient who wanted an abortion go to a physician who didn't perform them? That makes no sense.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Aug 5 2007, 11:06 AM) [snapback]490917[/snapback]</div>

In Jewish law, the concept of Pikuah Nefesh (the savings or preservation of human life) takes precedence over all other commandments in the Torah. Thus, doctors and others are obligated to save lives even if the Sabbath may be desecrated. As a matter of fact, it sinful to wait until the conclusion of the Sabbath or the Festivals to drive the sick or injured to a hospital for medical treatment. According to the Shulhan Arukh, "One who is zealous (and eagerly violates the Sabbath in such a case) is praiseworthy."

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 4 2007, 11:25 PM) [snapback]490745[/snapback]</div>

very well written. i reconsider my original position. we all have to make compromises i think, and so long as a physician is willing to consider the interest of the patient first in an emergency/time critical situation (rather than trying to spread their personal ideals, for example) i see no harm done.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn @ Aug 5 2007, 09:10 AM) [snapback]490874[/snapback]</div>

I don't think anybody here is saying it is OK to withhold emergency care because of personal beliefs. We're just talking a normal business day. In which case I believe a doctor should be able to run his practice the way he wants.

 

I guess I believe that anyone should follow their conscience, and suffer the results. It's only when people want to have their ethics ensconced as law in order to avoid any negative consequences that I have a problem. If you're not willing to accept that your choice may have negative consequences, then shut up and go back to work.

 

They were refusing to give it to Catholic priests.

 

AMA is always available. but if people want something, especially if its "elective" and not intrinsically harmful to them, give it to them.

i dont think anyone has the right to implore their religious, moral or anything else for that matter opinion on some one else.

on the question of contraception, there should not be a question at all. the sheer number of unwanted children in this world is blatant shame upon Mankind that is unconscious-able.

if someone for any reason, does not want the child, so be it. the option of having a child grow up in a potentially unwanted situation is far greater than any "moral" crime.

to be honest with ya, religion imm, is to blame for nearly every problem we face today

**edit**
on the question of medical practices in Israel, i have been lucky enough to have traveled many "religious" countries and i think you will find that rules like "not working" on any specific days are lucky to be followed by a very small segment of any society.

i work with some people of various religious backgrounds, and i can honestly say that a lot of the fanatical religious rules are pretty much fading away

 

Relevant Questions:

An unemployed welfare mom with 6 kids comes wanting embryos implanted. Do you help her?
A teenage mother comes wanting to kill her fetus without her parents knowing? What about her?
A man with a serious heart condition comes wanting Viagra, which raises blood pressure. Do you give it to him? (My wife is a nurse practitioner, and she had that situation once)

 

Funny as a fart in a jar when you go to a country where drinking alcohol is not allowed due to religious grounds but is sold at exorbitant prices in airport bars by people in Muslim dress.

 

Ah, now we're getting to The Ultimate God: the almighty dollar

Interesting how that buck appears an easy out, a good way to circumvent, even the kookiest of religious rantings.