{"id":5476,"date":"2014-12-13T06:05:47","date_gmt":"2014-12-13T14:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5476"},"modified":"2018-03-07T20:38:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T04:38:52","slug":"the-globe-and-mail-bullying-from-a-bully-pulpit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5476","title":{"rendered":"The Globe and Mail: bullying from a bully pulpit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Re: Globe and Mail<\/em> Editorial<\/a>, 11\/12 December, 2014<\/p>\n

Will Johnston<\/p>\n

If Tommy Douglas had foreseen that the public funding of\u00a0 Medicare\u00a0 would one day be the excuse to savagely persecute doctors with minority opinions about the birth control pill,\u00a0 he might have been taken aback.\u00a0 When Douglas was fighting for Medicare, the Pill had barely been invented though hundreds of women had already died from clots caused by that Pill’s high estrogen doses. Modern pills use a tiny fraction of the estrogen dose of the first generation Pill, but still result in side effects ranging from depression (common)\u00a0 to fatal embolism (rare) in some users.\u00a0\u00a0 Modern birth control pills cause some breast cancer but prevent some ovarian and uterine cancer.\u00a0 They can harm.<\/p>\n

A minority of doctors, following\u00a0 their own medical judgment, and soberly ignoring\u00a0 edicts\u00a0 from cranky Globe and Mail<\/em> editorialists,\u00a0 decide not to associate themselves with the Pill just as they and the majority would not refer a young woman whose family insists on clitoridectomy.\u00a0 Some doctors do not prescribe antidepressants,\u00a0 preferring other therapies for depression.\u00a0 Few doctors would refer for or perform the removal of a healthy limb (yes, there is an activist group who clamor for that “service” too). Public funding doesn’t mean that doctors should discard their judgment.\u00a0\u00a0 Referring for something means approving of it.<\/p>\n

If you tell a nasty stormtrooper where to go to find some refugees, but don’t personally persecute anyone, you are still implicated in the persecution.\u00a0 If you tip off an addict as to where to get his drugs, but don’t personally sell the drugs, you are still complicit in the addict’s self-harm.\u00a0 If you arrange the sale of a gun to a murderer, you become a link in the chain of responsibility for the consequences.<\/p>\n

So we are left with some\u00a0 questions:<\/p>\n

1. What harm is there in forcing some doctors to refer to other doctors who have no principles\u00a0 likely to\u00a0\u00a0 frustrate\u00a0 the patient’s desires?\u00a0 None, if you have no problem insisting that some doctors do what they think is wrong.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Should the doctor’s disinclination to refer for some item on some politician’s list, promptly and obediently,\u00a0 justify a quick end to the doctor’s career? Yes, if you want the medical system to end by serving the powerful and not the people.<\/p>\n

3. In what way is referring a patient for an abortion like selling a murder weapon, abetting self-harm, or betraying the hiding place of a refugee ?\u00a0 In each way, for those with eyes to see.<\/p>\n

The Globe<\/em> editorial is a bully’s cry demanding that the authorities hurt certain doctors with minority\u00a0 opinions about controversial medical care.\u00a0 These doctors\u00a0 are to be hurt by being pulled away from the patients they have laboured to serve and by having their livelihoods destroyed.<\/p>\n

The authors of the Globe <\/em>editorial appear to have no idea who bequeathed\u00a0 them the freedom to express themselves . Strident opinions can’t land them in jail or get them murdered by the police because this is not Iran or Russia. Their irritable and intemperate attack on a few earnest doctors betrays\u00a0 an\u00a0 impulse to coerce which, if not exposed and ridiculed, must end in totalitarianism.\u00a0\u00a0 We had better not let it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Re: Globe and Mail Editorial, 11\/12 December, 2014 Will Johnston If Tommy Douglas had foreseen that the public funding of\u00a0 Medicare\u00a0 would one day be the excuse to savagely persecute doctors with minority opinions about the birth control pill,\u00a0 he might have been taken aback.\u00a0 When Douglas was fighting for Medicare, the Pill had barely … Continue reading “The Globe and Mail: bullying from a bully pulpit”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,650,508,295],"tags":[1494],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canada","category-contraception","category-ethical-commentary","category-religious-freedom","tag-clitoridectomy"],"yoast_head":"\r\nThe Globe and Mail: bullying from a bully pulpit - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5476\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Globe and Mail: bullying from a bully pulpit - 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