O ye worshippers of death! Must I trot out the Hippocratic Oath again?

NBC 5 Chicago (via AP): Study: Doctors Hide Options On Moral Grounds
A disturbing (WOW! That is a new record, kiddies, even for the totalitarian wannabes at the AP. Only one letter into the "news" story and they are editorializing! I guess ol' Hippocrates will have to make an appearance below. - F.G.) number of doctors do not feel obligated to tell patients about medical options they oppose morally, such as abortion and teen birth control, and believe they have no duty to refer people elsewhere for such treatments, researchers say.

Because some things are wrong regardless of one's desire to commit them. The Natural Law? Mortal sin? Ring a bellwith anybody?

The survey of 1,144 doctors around the country is the first major look at how physicians' religious or moral beliefs might affect patients' care.

The study, conducted by University of Chicago researchers, found 86 percent of those responding believe doctors are obligated to present all treatment options, and 71 percent believe they must refer patients to another doctor for treatments they oppose.
Slightly more than half the rest said they had no such obligation; the others were undecided.

See the Hippocratic Oath, below.

"That means that there are a lot of physicians out there who are not, in fact, doing the right thing," said David Magnus, director of Stanford University's Center for Biomedical Ethics.

Ditto, Dave, you dumbass.

According to an American Medical Association policy statement, doctors can decline to give a treatment sought by an individual that is "incompatible with the physician's personal, religious or moral beliefs." But the physician should try to ensure the patient has "access to adequate health care."

Referring someone to someone else who will aid them in doing wrong is also wrong. The bottom line, kiddies? Don't trust doctors. You may get a thoroughly modern one.

The survey did not examine whether these doctors act on their beliefs - that is, whether they actually withhold information or refuse to refer patients. But the researchers calculated that tens of millions of Americans might be going to such doctors.

Hey, Mengele, why don't you just kill those doctors who don't worship death like you do?

"Conscientious objection is fine ... as long as it doesn't conflict with the rights of the patient," Magnus said. "You can't abandon the patient or essentially coerce the patient by saying you won't do the procedure or refer them to someone else."

WRONG!

It is a question of right versus wrong, not a question of "rights". Every man's first obligation is to God. (Or his conscience, to you unbelievers. Such is the dignity of man -- not that the left-fascist death-lovers believe in any such thing.) A doctor is next obligated to uphold the oath of his (once?) noble profession. (See the Hippocratic Oath below.)

The study was published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine and led by Dr. Farr Curlin, a University of Chicago ethicist and internist. The findings were based on a survey mailed to 1,820 practicing U.S. family doctors and specialists, chosen randomly from a national database; 63 percent responded.

Doctors describing themselves as very religious, particularly Protestants and Catholics, were much less likely than others to feel obligated to tell patients about controversial treatments or refer them to other doctors, and were far more likely to tell patients if they had moral objections.

Amen to that, my Brothers!

Pray for the doctors, kiddies. They are being coerced into worshipping death by their brethren who have lost their minds and stifled their consciences!

The bottom line? Find yourself an orthodox Catholic doctor, kiddies. That way, everybody involved has a better chance of getting out alive.

Overall, 52 percent said they oppose abortion, 42 percent opposed prescribing birth control to 14- to 16-year-olds without parental approval, and 17 percent objected to sedating patients near death.

Female doctors were much more likely than male ones to feel obligated to refer patients for treatments they personally oppose, far less likely to present their own objections to a patient and slightly more likely to disclose all treatment options.

Dr. Jeffrey Ecker, chairman of the committee on ethics at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said he was encouraged that most doctors agreed patients deserve to be told about all appropriate medical options and referred to other doctors when needed.

"There is reason to be concerned about those that don't do it," Ecker said. He added that it is possible many doctors in the survey who opposed such disclosures and referrals may be practicing in specialties where they don't face those issues.

He said doctors must let patients explicitly know if they are opposed to particular services.

One big problem area, Magnus said, involves emergency room doctors and emergency contraception for rape victims. He said it is considered standard care to offer the morning-after pill, but that is not done in some Catholic hospitals, according to one small study. Ecker said doctors opposed to emergency contraception should avoid working in an ER for that reason.

Why must the innocent baby conceived in rape be punished with death? How sick and disordered must you be to swallow that one, ladies?

Two wrongs do not make a you-know-what.

It would make more sense to execute the rapist.

Curlin noted prior research by his team found doctors may be a bit more religious than others - 46 percent of doctors said they attend religious services at least twice a month, compared with 40 percent of the general public. But he found doctors are less likely to carry their religious beliefs into their daily work, with 58 percent saying they do so, versus 73 percent of the general public.
Curlin said that in light of the new survey findings, if a patient "anticipates wanting a controversial treatment and they don't know already if their physician opposes it, then they should ask."
"I hope it leads to more substantive conversations between doctors and their patients," he said.


Here is the Hippocratic Oath, in all its ancient glory. Learn it, love it, live it, kiddies, even if you are not doctors. Some of those ol' dead white European pagans still make more sense than a lot of our present-day moral and intellectual superiors.

All emphasis below is mine.

I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability and judgment this oath and this covenant:

To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art - if they desire to learn it - without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath according to the medical law, but no one else.

I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.

I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in this work.

Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.

What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

If I fulfil this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein.

From The Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1943.

May God have mercy on the souls of those among us who are more wicked and ignorant than our pagan ancestors.