Pro Life in TN

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Pro Life thoughts in a pro choice world through the eyes of a convert. I took early retirement after working in the social work and Human Resources fields but remain active by being involved in pro life education, lobbying and speaking .

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Monday, April 5, 2010

Can doctors have opinions....before treatment starts or in the middle of it....

I have a friend in the Nashville area who was in the middle of treatment with a well known nuerologist and it came up in conversation that my friend was active in pro life activities....the Dr. refused to treat her anymore and actually documented that she was dismissing her due to her pro life commitments....


From Right Pundits .com
Doctors have opinions, too. And Dr. Jack Cassell of Mount Dora, Florida has made his public outside his office door. The urologist posted this sign: “If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years.”

Long live free speech. Cassell is not refusing to offer treatment. He is, however, making a statement. That the health care reform bill is bad medicine. “I’m not turning anybody away — that would be unethical,” Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. “But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it.” A professor of bioethics, law and medical professionalism at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, despite saying Cassell is “pushing the limit”, admitted the urologist is within his right.

Doctors cannot refuse patients due to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability. Political preference isn’t listed. However, as Dr. Cassell as said, he isn’t refusing treatment. But he has a right to his opinion and his right to express it. If he prefers not to treat those who have supported Obama and the health care mandate, Cassell can express that opinion, according to the Florida Medical Association. Erin VanSickle, spokeswoman for the Florida Medical Association, would not comment specifically. But she noted in an e-mail to the Sentinel that “physicians are extended the same rights to free speech as every other citizen in the United States.”

On a CNN inteview, Rep. Alan Grayson (D) claims this is racially motivated and is filing a complaint to have his license removed. Grayson is claiming that Obama supporteres are African Americans.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm the one whose neurologist, Dr. Jan Lewis Brandes of Nashville, dismissed her for being pro-life. In a typical consultation I just made a passing comment that my husband and I were working with our county RTL chapter, getting ready for the upcoming election, and suddenly it got very ugly in the exam room. She quite literally verbally attacked me, mentioning every issue she could think of, until she realized I would not be intimidated and could not be overwhelmed just because she was a doctor. At that point she announced that I would have to find another "doc" because she didn't think she could treat me "objectively" if I had these views. Later when I went back and got copies of my file, her last two notations were "huge advocate of right to life," and "dismissed from practice."

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