NursingLink

"Just because a male/female has functionning reproductive organs does not qualify them to be a father/mother to another human being." Tweety, just because they have reproductive organs doesn't mean they're mature enough to have sex either. There are precautions they can choose to take BEFORE they have sexual relations. Birth control is a choice. Childbirth for a pregnant women should not be. We're not talking about a liver transplant. We're talking about a human life. Once conception happens there should be no further choice but to deliver the baby at term. After the birth, there are options. But that's not even what this is about. This is about forcing a physician or a nurse to participate in a medical procedure which violates their ethical, moral and/or religious rights. You can't force a physician to go to a prison and give a lethal injection to a death row inmate. Why should you be able to force him/her to take the life of an innocent baby?

I think everyone has a right to choose what they wise to do.

YOURE WRONG SENIOR TWEETY
GOD IS A DOCTOR... AND A HEALER, A KEEPER, A FRIEND, A FATHER, A KING, A COMFORTER, A LAWYER...ALL THESE THINGS AND SO MUCH MORE. YOUR CYNICISM IS
IS REMARKABLE AND THE SCENARIOS YOU USED AS EXAMPLES HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PRESIDENTS PUSH FOR MEDICAL PERSONNELL TO HAVE THE SAME RIGHT TO CHOOSE IN MATTERS OF THEIR CONSCIENCE. FOR ALL THE SO-CALLED PRO CHOICE ADVOCATES OUT THERE, PLEASE EXPLAINE TO ME WHY A PERSON WHO IS PRO-LIFE NOT ALLOWED TO EXCERCISE THEIR RIGHT TO CHOOSE WITHOUT BEING PERSECUTED AND CALLED JUDGEMENTAL.

I think this is an interesting topic. I agree that healthcare providers shouldn't have to participate in something they don't believe to be consciencely or morally right. I hope that they would work in an environment that didn't provide these services. I can say that abortion availability has caused the loss of many children. I got married young and I am not proud to say it but I considered abortion for selfish reasons and because my husband and I were having a difficult time. I would have made the worst mistake of my life and missed out a great daughter and not have either daughter. I know choosing to have any abortion would have ended my marriage.My daughters don't know but I guess if they come across this site they will. I discussed it with my mom before I made my decision. I didn't want to be divorced and stuck taking care of a child alone. The marriage was very rocky. I believed it would end in divorce. It didn't but it would have I believe if I had aborted my oldest daughter and there would have never been my youngest daughter. I would have missed out on two wonderful and unique people.

seniortweety - patients have the right to REFUSE (lifesaving) medical treatment on the basis of religious beliefs, why should it be wrong for doctors to do the same?! Are they not human too? gtw said it best, 'there will always be physicians who have no moral problem with the issue of abortion.' I myself have difficulty promoting the prochoice option when it has become so widely abused.

seniortweety and others seem to view pro-life nurses as "judgemental" and "pressing their religious beliefs on others" and "preaching" at their patients. What I see happening with pro-life nurses is far from these characterizations. It has been my experience that often patients who present for an induced abortion have not been give the options. i.e. an anaecephalic may live for some time and become an organ donor, thereby giving life to a couple of other human beings; adoption for the rare rape victim; support during the pregnancy as well as counseling after the delivery and even post-abortion counseling. They should be told that studies have shown that artifically interrupting a pregnancy, particularly in primips places them at greater risk for developing breast cancer. They are rarely informed of the emotional consequences of undergoing this procedure, and referrals for counseling are non-exsistant. As part of our role as nurses, we should educate our patients regarding the options they have although they may involve carrying a pregnancy to term in order to permit the fetus to live and experience a normal life. We should not assume that once they are discharged after an abortion, the problem is fixed. Compassionate nurses offers alternative solutions to abortion that do not take the life of the smallest patient, and bring healing to the woman. You should explore agencies that offer adoption services, support during pregnancy, counseling after delivery, and even post-abortion counseling. You will likely find these compassionate organizations are not deserving of the judgemental labels you have given them.

First of all, why would a person who doesn't believe in foreign objects entering the body even enter the medical field? Honestly, that "example" is stretching it. In the example of a person getting a transplant who may not "deserve it", the reason it is questioned is because of the lifestyle and situation of the patient yet, it is said that you should look at the lifestyle and situation of the mother. Another thing is that getting a person a liver and aborting a baby are two different things. Maybe the child will have a difficult future, but who are we to deny the right of that child to having any future at all?
If one believes it is the mother's right to choose whether or not to have the life of her child taken, isn't it also the medical professional's right to not have to take the life. It isn't always about the judgment of the mother that a medical professional wouldn't do it. It's more because of their own conscious and not wanting to have the blood of the voiceless on their hands.

I believe its a womans choice, for instance, some medical professionals may not believe in abortion no matter what the circumstances surrounding it are, for example, if a woman is raped and pregnant, I believe that is grounds for her to choose to have an abortion or not, also, I think this law has ways of going into other areas of the medical field, if a medical professional feels that what he is doing is against his religious beliefs in other area's then what of that? For instance, there are religious beliefs that do not believe in placing foreign objects into their bodies, if a doctor that has those beliefs refuses to let a patient receive dialysis because of his/her beliefs, and his moral objections.........It is a medical professionals right to refer a patient to another professional who may be more competent in reaching that patients goals and giving them their freedom and rights to choose, Because of that fact, I don't agree with this law, regardless of what you believe is right or wrong for someone, it is still their choice. Another example: A patient comes in, who has a history of drug abuse and suicide, she has been drinking paint, and is now comatose, "did she drink the paint to get high? or was she committing suicide?" Regardless, she now has a failing liver, and in order to live, she requires a transplant... now here is the moral question: Do you refuse her the transplant because of your personal conscious, and that you personally feel that "she didn't take care of the first one, "she's just going to abuse this one also." Do you make her sign something that says that she would take better care of this new liver? would she be morally obligated to take care of it?... Then, would there be conditions of her having it? Now lets put into consideration that maybe she is not mentally stable enough to make a promise like that. Do you deny her that transplant and let her die? ......... with abortion, .... Rape victims, Mentally unstable, Mentally and/or physically disabled, complications for the mother and/or child, possibility of death to the mother and/or child, disease..... after all these things concerning abortion...., lets look at some other aspects of this, what about the 11 year old girl who is having a baby? The doctor/nurse/medical professionals who are suppose to be in charge of helping her deliver it, if they are morally against 11 year olds having children.....is it ok for them to refuse care? The mother who has full blown AIDS and is giving birth, The child born on Crack/ cocain, the child born to a mentally unstable alcholic, the child born to a mentally unstable individual who has schizophrenia, What if all of these individuals wanted abortions, I think people are looking at the small picture..... a woman in a hospital giving birth... or not..... they are not looking at the future of the children, the family, the mother, after all of this, I believe that it is a medical professionals Right to refer the patient to another more competent, less judgmental health professional, who would not try to press their religious and/or moral beliefs upon other individuals, who could help them reach their goals, and possibly refer them to a therapist or counselor to help them through this very hard decision/ choice, that will affect them for the rest of THEIR lives. The difference between God and doctors...... God knows he's not a doctor.