IN MY SHOES: When A Patient’s Rights Stop Where A Healthcare Provider’s Rights Begin
The Washington Post describes the dilemma of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers who refuse to perform procedures or to provide services that violate their First Amendment rights – and the impact such a crisis of conscience may have on patients who don’t share their beliefs:
Around the
Legal and political battles have followed. Patients are suing and filing complaints after being spurned. Workers are charging religious discrimination after being disciplined or fired. Congress and more than a dozen states are considering laws to compel workers to provide care -- or, conversely, to shield them from punishment.
Proponents of a "right of conscience" for health workers argue that there is nothing more American than protecting citizens from being forced to violate their moral and religious values. Patient advocates and others point to a deep tradition in medicine of healers having an ethical and professional responsibility to put patients first.
The issue is driven by the rise in religious expression and its political prominence in the
Anguishing as these cases are for healthcare providers and patients alike, The Stiletto is firmly on the side of those who would rather lose their livelihoods (be thrown to the lions, as it were) than to violate their deeply held religious beliefs. In the vast majority of such cases, it is easier for a patient to go to another clinic or to another pharmacy than for a devout healthcare provider to cleanse his or her soul of sin.
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February 18, 2007
The Stiletto wrote:
The Associated Press reports that ‘Meet The Press” host Tim Russert was in the hot seat during two days of cross-examination in the perjury and obstruction trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. The final prosecution witness, Russert was grilled on his ethics and credibility as Libby’s legal team “flashed excerpts of his previous statements on a video monitor and asked him to explain inconsistencies” – a technique the NBC journalist uses to great effect to make the rich and powerful squirm: A law school graduate, Mr. Russert was asked ...
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