California's Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday (August 18th) that doctors can't invoke their religious beliefs to deny treatment to gays and lesbians, saying that a state law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation applies to the medical profession.
The lawsuit that led to the ruling was brought in 2001 by a lesbian named Guadalupe Benitez against two Christian fertility doctors. Benitez said the doctors treated her with fertility drugs, but instructed her to inseminate herself at home, saying their religious beliefs prevented them from inseminating her. One of the doctors eventually referred her to another fertility specialist without any religious objections, and Benitez has since given birth to three children that she's raising with her longtime partner.
Robert Tyler of the group Advocates for Faith and Freedom, one of the attorneys for the clinic, said the decision advanced what he said is the Supreme Court's, quote, "radical agenda" and would help in the effort to pass a ballot initiative in November that would reverse the high court's decision earlier this year approving gay marriage. Tyler told AP, "The Supreme Court's desire to promote the homosexual lifestyle at the risk of infringing upon the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion is what the public needs to learn about."
I think we are on dangerous ground when doctors can't practice their religion in this country.
The Hippocratic Oath says "To practice and prescribe to the best of my ability for the good of my patients, and to try to avoid harming them"
Can someone show me how these doctors harmed this patient? They didn't. In fact, these doctors gave the patient fertility drugs to help cause a pregnancy. These doctors gave instruction on how to do the procedure at home. These doctors gave information on how to contact another doctor who could perform this procedure. And the most important fact of all, this patient now has children. NO HARM WAS DONE.
I hope these doctors appeal this all the way to the US Supreme Court.
