Acts of Conscience
Feb 17th, 2008 at 5:19 pm by Susie
I suppose this means if I see a seriously wounded right-to-life extremist official in the street with no one else around, and my conscience tells me society would be better off without him, it’s perfectly okay for me not to call 911:
Pennsylvania: Sen. John Eichelberger (R) on Monday introduced a bill that would allow health care professionals to refuse to dispense contraceptives or perform abortion services for religious reasons or “acts of conscience,” the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. The bill, titled the Conscientious Objection Act, would give health care professionals immunity from lawsuits. Eichelberger said he intends “to make it very clear that people in health care and in medical institutions would be held harmless if they for religious reasons decide not to provide procedures for abortion or contraception.” Jeanne Clark, an activist with the National Organization for Women who previously ran the Allegheny Women’s Center in East Liberty, said the measure could allow physicians to refuse to treat a woman in need of emergency medical care, such as bleeding from a miscarriage or abortion. It is “pretty awful that a medical professional sworn to do no harm [could] use this excuse to kill a woman,” Clark said (Bumsted, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 1/28).
This is horrible. All a failed medical practioner has to do is claim that the procedure was “against my beliefs” and they get a walk. Scary. What about professionalism? What about duty to the patient? These people should be drummed out and swiftly. Your life may depend on it.
It should be called the “Right to Selected Types of Life Movement.”