Just yesterday I wrote my thoughts about the resurgent turtle-headed trend in morality in the States. Lola left a comment:
i am currently locked in a battle of wits (dare i call it that, considering i feel that i am battling the witless…?) with the physician at my dr’s office who refuses to prescribe BC based on her religious beliefs.
yep. here in good ol’ victoria.
It never crossed my mind that this debate would reach into Canada, much less the vegan feminist stronghold of Victoria. I guess I just assumed we were smarter than that. Shows me.
It’s a tricky question- should doctors be forced by law to offer services against their conscience? For now I say no, if a doctor believes prescribing birth control is against his or her religion then he should not have to do it. The effects will show soon enough in his dwindling registry of regular patients. And that is what I believe- in a country where we firmly believe that a woman should be able to control her body and her life as much as a man controls his I think people would flee a doctor like that in droves on principle.
But where does the question stop? Lawyers are required to give the best defense even to those they know are guilty. We publically lambaste racists. And we tend to frown on those wacky Mormons of Bountiful, BC. Tolerance for the morally marginal is a gray area for us. That’s why it has to be a free country, where the rights of individuals are guaranteed so long as they do not infringe on those same rights of other individuals.
Tricky.
In a capitalist democracy the only answer is in the pocketbook- force these doctors to feel the opinion of the majority.
heh – i started to write a mega-comment and then figured it’d prolly be better turned into a post.
come, visit! read!
((dj))
ps: you’ll be happy to know we reached the same conclusion. i kicked ’em square in the pocketbook. with steel toes on. and found another doctor.
;)