Raped teen denied Plan B pill due to doctor's religious believes.

Plan B is not a matter of her life, health, or physical well being.
She has a right to find another doctor.
He had a right to tell her I won't prescribe this.

No job ever is worth putting your personal beliefs in jeopardy for the sake of something that is not life threatening to someone else. (Which in my opinion the only life threatened here is the possible unborn life that could be growing inside the girl)

There are doctors everywhere, who don't believe in certain types of healing and medicine. (IE: Herbal, spiritual, experimental, etc.) and they are not criticized for those beliefs. In fact, because it is PC they are congratulated by most of the medical and public world. This is a shame considering all the side effects associated with so many drugs that are on the market to ‘cure what ails you’.

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Originally posted by bolarithai


What's next? A guy gets shot while being mugged and a doctor refuses to operate on him to remove the bullet because the guy clearly had too much money on him and greed is a sin?

Fucking asshole.

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BTW.

That is the most ignorant and unrelated issue you could have brought into this. She wasn't dying. Also, he never said it was her own fault. He just didn't want to help her kill her baby.

I think it's kind of silly when religious folk meddle too much in other people's abortions. My stance has always been, well, 'Fuck off' :P.

But if you force religious people to facilitate the same types of 'wrongs' (in their eyes), it's really just an inversion of the same silliness.

As far as the Declaration goes, I bet if you asked the doctor, he would point out that he 'practiced his profession with conscience and dignity', and 'maintained the utmost respect for human life' (since we're quoting things). Also, with regard to putting the health of his patient first, it seems pretty clear that he was acting under the assumption that he had two patients at the time. Looking at it that way, it seems that he did indeed put the health of his patients first.

I do think that hospitals should have a uniform policy for these sorts of things, and that rape victims should have access to emergency contraception. Maybe it's unrealistic to believe that those two things could be true, without requiring doctors to violate their own conscience/sense of morality. Hell, maybe it just requires keeping a couple of heathen doctors employed at the religious hospitals ;).

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Originally posted by kiania
My point was, if he couldn't give the woman the treatment, he should, in his professional capacity, have refered her to a doctor who would be able to give the woman the treatment, not just refused it.

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Why? That is just as bad as giving it to her directly as far as the immortal soul and conscious go. If she wanted the treatment bad enough, she could have simply asked the nurse to see another doctor. How hard is that?

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Originally posted by Talsek
I think it's kind of silly when religious folk meddle too much in other people's abortions. My stance has always been, well, 'Fuck off' :P.

But if you force religious people to facilitate the same types of 'wrongs' (in their eyes), it's really just an inversion of the same silliness.

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I am anything but religious, you can ask anyone who knows me. Why does it have to be assumed that because someone does not believe in Plan B or in abortion that they are religious "bible thumpers"? Sure this guy was religious, but has someone who is not, let me assure you that I would not want it on my record that I helped to kill or prevent a new life from entering the world regardless of the means by which that life was created.

Edit: One more thing! I am now so irritated that I stumbled on this thread that I can't even borg anymore and that makes me bitter. :violin

I think this is a very difficult issue to discuss and is hardly black and white.

The morning after pill is only effective within 72 hours of the time of insemination. If the girl is being held at the hospital for that amount of time, then denying her the pill takes on larger proportions than if she had the full 72 hours to seek another doctor's help.

In the episode of Boston Legal, the girl was badly beaten during/after the rape, and she was in the hospital for nearly 4 days before she was released. The doctor denied her the pill, and she had no other options because she was taken to a Catholic hospital since it was the closest one. Thus, sometimes it's not an option to just "seek another doctor".

If, however, she wasn't being held and had options for seeking another doctor, she has no right to force one particular doctor to go against his beliefs in order to prescribe her medicine he would never prescribe for anyone.

I think the real issue this article raises is whether or not the pill should be over-the-counter. I don't really find this pill to be any different than taking birth control pills except that it is NOT as effective as birth control. As usual, this is a private decision that should be made between the teen and the parent. Thus, I do think the pill should be over-the-counter. I'm pretty sure that it does not have severe side effects unlike RU48.

Doctors are morally bound to ultimately do what they feel is best for a patient. You as a spectator do not factor into their decisions. That is a good thing. It is to the benefit of all that doctors can have the moral conviction to decide against something they feel to be wrong.

Does anyone really think that the pill would have washed away the bad? That it would have in any way aided in her physical recovery? The doctor is not a psychiatrist. It's not his job to do what's best for her mentally. He was there to patch her up after a significant bad thing happened to her. He did that. She's alive and healthy.

Most doctors become doctors because they have a genuine desire to heal others. When you go around shitting on that from the sidelines, when you start making them question their morals, devotions to the belief of helping others, make them think they have failed in some way when they had the chance to not fail then you are treading on a very delicate subject.

Do not force those who have to make difficult decisions feel pressured by your sideline beliefs.

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Originally posted by Karmei
BTW.

That is the most ignorant and unrelated issue you could have brought into this. She wasn't dying. Also, he never said it was her own fault. He just didn't want to help her kill her baby.

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Actually, that last statement is pretty ignorant.

Plan B does not abort a pregnancy; all it does is prevent the release of the egg by 'tricking' the woman's body into thinking that it is already pregnant.

Taking this is is essentially the same thing as taking birth control pills every day (because it's the same drug as is used in some BC pills, just in a much higher dosage).

If there is a fetus already inside of her, she could take this and nothing would happen. I'm curious to know if this same doctor would have a problem prescribing regular birth control pills to other women... It would be awfully hypocritical if he did.

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From the article:

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Bender's daughter was raped July 21. Bender went with her to Lebanon's Good Samaritan Hospital and was denied the morning-after pill by Dr. Martin Gish, an emergency room doctor who refused to prescribe it, saying it was against his Mennonite religion.

When Gish refused to prescribe the pill, the rape victim called her gynecologist, who wrote the prescription. Her local pharmacy told her it was out of the drug and referred her to a sister store in Reading.

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But Susan Gobreski, president of Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania, and Jenny Murphy-Shifflet, the executive director of the Sexual Assault Resource and Counseling Center of Lebanon County, hailed the FDA's decision as a necessary first step to emergency contraception.

Even with the FDA action, they said there is still a need for a bill in the Legislature, the Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act, that would ensure that all rape victims are able to receive emergency contraception in Pennsylvania hospitals.

"It shouldn't be like rolling the dice when a rape victim goes to the hospital," said Gobreski. "They should receive an even standard of care. And they shouldn't have to go chasing around in the middle of the night looking for an open pharmacy. They should be able to get it on site."

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I completely 100% agree with that last statement. If this doctor has a moral objection to prescribing this kind of pill, he should not be working in the emergency room. This girl could potentially have become pregnant due to a rape and had to seek out an abortion (thus potentially causing more short and long term health risks to her body) and he would be held responsible through his negligence.

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Originally posted by kiania
My point was, if he couldn't give the woman the treatment, he should, in his professional capacity, have refered her to a doctor who would be able to give the woman the treatment, not just refused it.

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Interestingly, that was my opinion when I watched the Boston Legal episode.

Additionally, doctors take an oath that requires them to put the patients needs ahead of their own beliefs.

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Originally posted by Karmei
I am anything but religious, you can ask anyone who knows me. Why does it have to be assumed that because someone does not believe in Plan B or in abortion that they are religious "bible thumpers"?

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Whether or not you're a bible thumper is pretty irrelevant. I really don't care -why- someone feels that abortion is wrong. The issue is how that belief affects a doctor's actions.