When religion and healthcare collide

August 26, 2008

Earlier this week, the California Supreme Court ruled against two physicians who allegedly denied — based on their religious opposition — a legal medical treatment to a patient based on her sexual orientation. The decision was issued in a lawsuit filed by a lesbian against doctors in a Vista, Calif., medical group who refused to artificially inseminate her. 

This is a welcome, if unusual, turnabout in a disturbing trend that has characterized American medicine over the last three or so decades: an increasing willingness to allow the actions of individuals to disadvantage, and even endanger, others if those actions derive from religious faith. (Los Angeles Times)