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So, I was on MSN. Was going to check my e-mail, since I'd probably have a bunch (Facebook especially likes to spam me). Instead, I noticed a strange little article.
Basically, the Bush administration is considering passing a regulation, that would deny any hospital, clinic, health plan, etc. from federal funding if their employees could not opt out of certain practices that went against their convictions/consciences/ideologies.
In other words, if a hospital says "You signed up for this sort of deal," then they don't get any future funding for anything.
However, this only applies to practices involving abortion, birth control, and Plan B (since, in the article, I haven't seen where this has been explained, so I'm going to assume that it's referring to the morning after pill).
First off, I'm pretty sure any hospital/clinic/etc. has employees that are well aware of what their job entails. If they work at an abortion clinic, then they obviously must not have much of a problem doing that sort of thing. If it doesn't appeal to their religious beliefs, then obviously they wouldn't be in that field of work.
Secondly, only gynecologists prescribe birth control (at least I'm pretty sure they're the only ones). I mean, it's kind of their job. They examine, tell if you're healthy "down there", prescribe birth control, and the like. I don't get how some may feel that this may go against people's better judgment, or ethics, considering that many women use them so that they don't get pregnant, not to abort one. And, many women use them so that their "time of the month" isn't as Hellish.
I also like how, in the article, the people in favor of the regulation (currently only a draft), have said that it is a necessary safeguard for doctors and nurses who are, and I quote "Are increasingly facing discrimination because of their beliefs or are being coerced into delivering services they find repugnant."
Is that funny, or what?
I'm sorry, but if you don't feel comfortable doing anything at all in the medical field, you shouldn't be in it. And it's not like every hospital has an abortion clinic with everyday doctors. No, they're trained, they know what they're doing, and again, if they're doing it then it must not be against their ethics.
Plus, if you think about it, nurses and doctors face having to go against their better judgments a lot, maybe almost every day. After all, if a nurse believes that a patient should have a blood transfusion, the doctor may just go right on and have the guy sent to surgery, or another CAT Scan. That very same nurse may even have to help the patient out of his bed and onto the wheelchair to take him to surgery herself, cursing the doctor in her head.
Oh, I also love this about the article:
"The draft states that numerous cases have been reported of health-care workers being "required to violate their consciences by providing or assisting in the provision of controversial medicine or procedures." It adds that many states have recently passed laws requiring health plans to pay for contraception, pharmacists to fill prescriptions for birth control, and hospitals to offer Plan B to women who have been raped."
Seriously. The hell?
You're a pharmacist. You're job is to either grab the prescription that has been sent from the office, or refill it how the prescription describes. If you have a problem with a woman either trying not to get pregnant using a birth control pill, or better yet, a problem with a woman trying to find something that will ease the pain of that special monthly visitor, then I'd like to kindly ask them to find a different profession. Frankly, I'd be happy seeing a woman picking up her prescription than having her go through an actual abortion. Even if it isn't 100%, it's better than other things, I'd say.
And another thing. If you're too self-withdrawn that you feel unethical about giving a woman any sort of emergency contraceptive (morning after pill, remember) after she has been raped, then you should be fired. On the spot. In front of the patient. I'd be pissed, personally, if my nurse told me that "I'm sorry, but I just don't feel right that you should be taking this," after I had been raped.
One thing that gets me is that the regulation targets birth control pills. I have no idea why, since it's basically about abortion, and halting it. Really, birth control pills keep women from having to make that decision. And trust me, a fetus can survive the pill (my grandmother took her prescription for two months before she realized she was pregnant with my mother). So, obviously it cannot be used as a sort of home-abortion kit, or whatever.
If you can't already tell, this article really fired me up. Personally, I'm against it.
At the end, those who are for it reiterate their only point of that it's terrible for anyone to have to do what they find ethically wrong. Well then, that doctor, that nurse, that whoever is working at that clinic, hospital, whatever, certainly would not have taken that job. If your a nurse working in the ICU and you hate the sight of a child coming in on the stretcher, then maybe you should step down to something else. If you hate having to mop up puke off of the floor after someone's just got out of surgery and they're sick off of the medication, then you shouldn't have become a janitor.
People just need to realize that almost everyone knows what they're doing. That they know what's against their ethics, and what isn't. If they don't want to do it, they won't. If a doctor doesn't want to give women abortions, then he won't - he'll work somewhere that doesn't allow that sort of thing, or he'll work at a different branch of that hospital that isn't abortion.
Well, I am done here. It's late, and I needs my sleeps. Maybe enjoy a couple more Bags of Win. Ciao.
((Article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/2594081 cool )
 Ehclarx · Thu Jul 31, 2008 @ 10:01am · 0 Comments |
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