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Showing posts with label Reglious Beliefs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reglious Beliefs. Show all posts

Friday, February 15, 2013

Clergy are not doctors — and the U.S. has its own Savita Halappanavars

By Irin Carmon
Salon.com
Originally published February 7, 2013

The death of Savita Halappanavar — the woman who died of sepsis in Ireland after being denied her request for termination of a nonviable pregnancy — drew outrage and attention in the United States late last fall, but one crucial point was often missed. Even in America, where abortion is mostly legal, cases like Halappanavar’s are a known reality in Catholic hospitals.

Take one case detailed to medical sociologist Lori Freedman by the doctor involved. A woman 16 weeks pregnant with twins was diagnosed with a molar pregnancy, which can lead to cancer, and “didn’t want to carry the pregnancy further.” She went to the hospital with vaginal bleeding, but unluckily for her, it was a Catholic one. There, the ethics committee decided that a uterine evacuation was tantamount to abortion, because there was a slim chance one of the fetuses would survive.

According to another doctor who witnessed the situation, “The clergy who made the decision Googled molar pregnancy.”

The woman was transferred out, Freedman wrote in a recent study published in the American Journal of Bioethics Primary Research, “despite the fact that terminating a bleeding molar pregnancy is safer in the hospital setting due to a high risk of hemorrhage.” What Freedman learned tracked closely with her previous studies focused on doctors’ concerns about miscarriage care in Catholic hospitals in situations very much like Halappanavar’s. Many doctors told her they preferred to send patients elsewhere rather than navigate the ethics committee.

The tension between religious beliefs and denial of medical care is currently playing out in the courtroom battles over the contraceptive coverage requirements under Obamacare, and for years, in legislative battles over “conscience clauses” that allow medical providers to opt out of some procedures. But some doctors’ consciences are being violated in the opposite fashion: Their recommendations for what is best for the women’s health and life, and often the wishes of the women themselves, are being circumvented by ethics committees at ever-expanding Catholic hospitals.

The entire story is here.

Thanks to Gary Schoener for this article.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Standing Their Ground


by Libby Nelson
Inside Higher Ed
Originally published February 3, 2012

WASHINGTON -- At a panel discussion at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities’ annual meeting of presidents today, the presenters made one thing clear: American culture may have changed, but their institutions’ interpretation of the Bible -- which views homosexuality as immoral -- will not.

So the discussion, as described by the panelists and members of the audience, dealt not with whether colleges should change their attitudes toward gay students, but how to deal with the controversy that breaks out when students or alumni pressure a college to change.

But the fact that the session, which was closed to reporters, was held at all is an acknowledgment that CCCU colleges -- which all require professors to sign “statements of faith” in Christian doctrine, and many of which have behavioral requirements for their student body, including on sexuality -- most likely have gay students on campus and will confront difficult situations when an increasingly accepting culture clashes with the colleges’ theological beliefs.

“It’s a conversation that’s here to stay, and we want the conversation to be both honest and fair,” said Gayle Beebe, president of Westmont College.

Last year, a group of 31 gay and lesbian Westmont alumni wrote a letter to the college, saying they had lived in an environment of “doubt, loneliness and fear” while enrolled there. More than 100 additional alumni signed on in support, and more than 50 faculty members signed a letter in response, asking forgiveness for causing the students pain.

A few months later, an openly gay student at Messiah College, in Pennsylvania, told the Harrisburg Patriot-News that he planned to transfer after two semesters of bullying. Students had excluded him, he said, a professor had called him an “abomination,” he received death threats on Facebook, and his wallet, keys and student ID were stolen, among other incidents, he said.

“It was a very difficult situation,” said Kim Phipps, Messiah’s president, another member of the panel, in part because the college could not counter accusations without revealing private information about the student himself.

The entire story is here.