I recall, at some point in my DP history, using the example of "What if a doctor denied baby care because he didn't think the parents should have had a baby" as an intentionally absurd extension to people who are ok with doctors and pharmacologistis denying Plan B and permanent birth control procedures, another place where for some reason we allow doctors to refuse to do their job over their sanctimony.
I never imagined in a million years a doctor would be enough of a bigoted prick to actually do it.
It's terrible enough to deny care because you assume a woman is a slut, or you're so patronizing that you don't believe women are intellectually capable of making their own family planning choices.
But to project that onto a baby? Really? This is where America fallen to? And people are defending this? Denying health care to someone who didn't even get to make any choices in the first place, because of who their parents happen to be?
People are so dogmatic about defending the bigoted's supposed "right" to harm others that they would allow a doctor to deny a baby health care? What if this had been an issue of illness, rather than routine?
No law can function in reality, when you look at it in a vacuum. That's why there's a "yelling fire in a crowded room" exception. But if that were to come up as a case today, I bet people would sit there and shrug about people getting trampled to death because some idiot decided to start a stampede, defending his "speech rights."
Doctors who are unwilling to do their job need their license revoked. They should not be able to refuse care because they don't like someone, much less refuse care because they don't like someone who isn't even their patient. Their job is to serve the health of the population. If they can't deal with that, they should do something else.
Is everyone just going to let this get to the point where they have no idea if a given doctor will help them and they just have to knock on doors until they find someone who isn't a selfish asshole? America's health care system is broken enough, without adding in exceptions for bigots to refuse to help their patients.
There was a time when doctors were expected to keep their personal nonsense to themselves and just do their damn job, rather than being permitted to hang people's health in the balance of their judgmentality. If you want to preech to the unwashed masses, go be a pastor.
I don't give a **** about the "free speech" of doctors on the job. Their job is to treat people, not to make a point. If they can't do that, they shouldn't be in the health care profession. People's health is too important to be subject to the whims of bigots.