Protect Medical Services from Religious Objectors
by Paul FischerI thought you may be interested in this Action Alert from the Secular Coalition for America: http://action.secular.org/t/5484/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25413
The Department of Health and Human Services have submitted proposed regulations that would allow anyone working or volunteering in any medical or research facility which receives any federal funding to refuse to serve patients or conduct research.
The current proposal leaves out any provision to protect patients (e.g. requiring that someone else serve them – even in emergency situations.) The proposal is so broad that it could allow individuals to interfere with medical services in a number of areas.
I believe that medical professionals (whether they are doctors, pharmacists, technicians, or EMTs) are employed in the field of medicine, not spirituality. They have the right to consider their own religious beliefs in determining what medical decisions they make for their own care, but their personal religion should never infringe on the right of a patient to seek products or procedures that they have a legal right to obtain.
Please tell the HHS that these proposed regulations to allow a medical professional to object to performing tasks that they oppose for religious reasons will mean denying a patient the right to medically sound information, products, and procedures.