THE DAILY BLADE: Docs: Partial Birth Abortion Ruling Interferes With Patient Care. Oh Really?
Reuters reports that the May 24 issue of New England Journal of Medicine will include a group of commentaries about the effect that last week’s Supreme Court's ruling upholding the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act has on "the practice of medicine":
"With this decision the Supreme Court has sanctioned the intrusion of legislation into the day-to-day practice of medicine," Dr. Jeffrey Drazen, editor of the journal …
"Both health care providers and patients should be alarmed by the current degree of intrusion by our government into the practice of medicine and even more so by the apparent trajectory that it seems poised to follow in the near future," Drazen added. …
"I am concerned. It is going to chill physicians who provide these services, and I am concerned that women who need and want them may have more difficulty obtaining them," said Dr. Michael Greene, a professor at Harvard Medical School and director of obstetrics at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
"Lacking confidence in the judicial system, physicians may choose to avoid performing second-trimester surgical abortions, thus restricting access to them, perhaps even if the mother's life is in jeopardy," Greene wrote in his commentary.
Something like 2,300 years before last week’s ruling, Hippocrates (AKA the "Father of Medicine") expressly forbade doctors to perform abortions. Indeed, physicians swear an oath not to do so:
I swear by Apollo, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath. …
I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.
To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.
Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion [emphasis, The Stiletto’s].
Thus, every physician who performs an abortion violates the Hippocratic oath (so too every physician who administers "terminal sedation" to hasten a patient’s death). The Stiletto is waiting with bated breath for the May 24 issue of NEJM to see whether the docs explain how the Supreme Court ruling proscribes their ability to "treat" patients, but the Hippocratic Oath does not.
By the way, note the headline on the Reuters article: "Supreme Court Abortion Rule Chills Doctors: Journal." Yeah, well, you should see what partial birth abortion does to unborn babies (warning: extremely graphic image).
Editorial Note: This post engendered a thoughtful – and lively - discussion on Free Republic. One reader mentioned that the "modern" version of the Hippocratic Oath leaves out the prohibition against abortion. The Stiletto looked into the matter further and found that, while some doctors continue to take the traditional oath, there are several alternatives that are also used in its place. Some - but not all - sidestep mention of abortion and euthanasia and neither forbid these practices nor condone them. These alternative oaths include:
† Oath of Maimonides (Moses Maimonides, 12th Century): "Almighty G-d, Thou has created the human body with infinite wisdom. … Inspire me with love for my art and for Thy creatures. Do not allow thirst for profit, ambition for renown and admiration, to interfere with my profession, for these are the enemies of truth and of love for mankind and they can lead astray in the great task of attending to the welfare of Thy creatures."
† The Declaration of Geneva (World Medical Association, 1948): "… I will not permit considerations of religion, nationality, race, party politics, or social standing to intervene between my duty and my patient; I will maintain the utmost respect for human life, from the time of conception" [emphasis, The Stiletto’s]
† The Oath of Lasagna (Dr. Louis Lasagna, 1964): "…If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God."
Implicit all these oaths is respect for human life – for all G-d’s children. Doctors, who take courses in biology, anatomy and embryology, know better than most that when a human sperm and a human egg meet, the result is a human being and not a tumor-like clump of cells until the mother-to-be decides to deliver the baby instead of aborting it. Any doctor who performs abortions violates the spirit – and in some cases the letter – of whichever professional oath he or she takes.
Shoddy Reporting At The Sun-Times
MarketWatch media critic Jon Friedman takes the Chicago Sun-Times to task for reporting an unsubstantiated tip - from an unnamed source, natch - that authorities were investigating whether a Chinese citizen had carried out the carnage at Virginia Tech (of course, it later developed that gunman Seung-Hui Cho was a naturalized American citizen of South Korean descent):
Editor Michael Cooke and Managing Editor Don Hayner vigorously defended the performance of their paper and its columnist, Michael Sneed. …
Chinese people in the United States and elsewhere were furious. The journalism profession should be angry, as well, over yet another invitation for the public to suggest that we are irresponsible and only interested in sensationalism.
Cooke was defiant Friday when we talked. "There's no error in the story," he said. "[Sneed] got this information from an utterly impeccable source. Authorities all across America had been told this."
Cooke summed up by saying that in journalism, an organization takes the information at its disposal "and you put it in the paper."
Somehow, Cooke's self-serving logic escapes me. The Sun-Times should have tried a hell of a lot harder to confirm the information. It should have had assurances from multiple and reliable sources before it made this proclamation, which had explosive repercussions.
Even if every news outlet in the country had been told this, it seemed that not every one of them panted to publish it. A newspaper doesn't have to publish every bit of speculative stuff it receives, even from so-called impeccable sources. Neither Cooke nor Hayner would divulge any details about what person or individuals originally led the paper to the story. …
A journalist doesn't have to swing at every pitch. Sometimes, you let what seems on the surface to be a juicy scoop go by, if you might be proven wrong.
Once-upon-a-time, in a land far, far away journalists used to corroborate information provided by a source by checking with at least one other source – two or more other sources, if time permitted and/or the original source insisted on anonymity and did not have a track record of 100 percent reliability. Good times, good times.
Life Imitates Max Headroom
Aides to Gov. Jon S. Corzine - still unable to govern after an April 12 car crash that left him with a number of broken bones, including 11 ribs and his left thigh, collarbone and breastbone – are hopeful that as his condition improves, he will be able to resume his duties from his hospital bed via videoconferencing.
This option may not be feasible for some time yet, however, as Corzine continues to take powerful narcotics for pain relief. "I would suggest that he’s not going to go back to being governor if he’s on sufficient medications to make him groggy," said Dr. Steven E. Ross, head of the trauma division at a news conference. Dr. Ross added that doctors advise patients on such painkillers not to drive or operate heavy machinery because the drugs can impair judgment.
For the near future, State Senate President Richard J. Codey will remain acting governor.
To quote a bumper sticker: Isn't it ironic that the only supporters of abortion have been born?
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The Stiletto could be wrong, but she thinks that quip was originally from Ronald Reagan. The Stiletto gets a kick out of your wry comments - keep 'em coming!
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