Dentist suspended for refusing to treat lesbian patient

Boston Globe ^ | 07/18/03 | Associated Press

[longtermmemmory]

I know a divorce lawyer who will not represent a spouse who has come out of the closet. He will represent the wronged spouse, remove parental rights of the homosexual where possible, petition for supervised visitation, arrange for expert testimony to show how children in homosexual environments are at greater risk for developmental problems and as adults, demand (and get) mandated regular aids testing, petition tomandate health insurance to cover HIV.

This dentist was entitled. Would a jewish doctor have to treat afafat? How much discomfort is an emergency?

[HELLRAISER II]

I just think that Homosexual Sex puts a person more at risk than Heterosexuals. But then again the biggest AIDS epedimic is in Africa and there aren't many I.V. Drug users or Gay's, so who knows.

[longtermmemmory]

It IS legal. You have the right to refuse service. If this was a LIFE or DEATH emergency there is an argument over discomfort. He can easily overcome that with pain killers and sending her to another dentist.

It sounds like he started the procedure. He was comitted. He should have finished, quietly and then advised her to seek other dental care.

A dentist has EVERY right to be selective about patients. I know dentists who refuse objectional patients.

[HELLRAISER II]

So what? Look i'm not being a smart @ss, but why can't he make that choice? Don't say well it's like discriminating against a race of people. Again I say, Race isn't a choice, Homosexuality is. I'm not against Homo's, it's their choice and I truly believe that. But you & I & this Dentist all should have the same choice of who we associate with if it threatens our health.

[longtermmemmory]

Africa's aides problem is based on prostitution. There is also a large population of truck drivers who seek "rest relief" at stops away from home.

The parallel with the homosexuals in the Western world (not just USA) is the indiscriminate sex, sex with high risk groups (prostitutes, drug users, homosexuals). In that regard there is not much different.

It is noteworthy to state that in the USA according to the CDC 94% of all new hiv cases are within the homosexual group.

[kegler4]

My main point was that the dentist wasn't worried about where the woman's mouth had been. Or if he was, then he needed to start worrying about heterosexual guys, too.

Personally, I think the dentist should be able to stop seeing almost any patient, but to do it when the woman is in severe pain is inhuman. This guy would not be my dentist.

[longtermmemmory]

I think the problem in this case was the procedure was already started. If he had given her pain pills before he started and sent her on her way, then there would be no problem.

There is also one other unclear point on this case. Did the doctor object to her homosexuality or to the patients theory about homosexual couples being the same as marriage.

[Dimensio]

I just think that Homosexual Sex puts a person more at risk than Heterosexuals.

In that case, your assessment is based upon faulty premises. Without getting into "icky" specifics, it isn't "homosexual sex" that is at higher risk, it's a certain specific sexual act often engaged in by homosexual males. Not every homosexual male engeges in that act, however, and some heterosexuals engage in the same act, and it's just as risky when they do it. Lesbians typically do not engage in that particular act. As such, "homosexual sex" isn't a higher risk activity per se, because there's no single specific action defined under "homosexual sex".

[longtermmemmory]

hiv is just a virus looking to propigate, however homosexuals and in particular the homosexual lifestyle is a fertile breeding ground for the virus.

It just the odds, the odds favor that of 100 heterosexual people and 100 homosexual people, the homosexuals would have an alarmingly higher exposure to the hiv virus. (same comparison with IV drug users who share needles)

Didn't you know the original name of "aids" was glids or some acronym involving the word "gay" or homosexual. This is going back to the era of "patient zero." The homosexual flight attendent who intentionally spread the aids virus to as many people as possible.

[Dimensio]

It was called "GRID": Gay Related Immune Disorder. The "flight attendedant", IIRC, was a fictional character created for the book "And the Band Played On", not an actual real person.

[longtermmemmory]

he was real, in university I had a professor who was studiing the propagation of sexually transmitted diseases in the population and patient zero was one of his case studies.

The non-existence of patient zero is the myth. (s) This is because this person demonstrates the joys of the homosexual lifestyle. (/s)

[annyokie]

The vagina is meant to take a great deal of punishment (think child-birth.) The rectum and anus are not and are very thin membranes, indeed.

[Cindy]

International Healing Foundation

[GatekeeperBookman]

AIDS, state regulation ( restriction of trade ), a blood-bath of torts, pervasive political correctness-all of this brings one view back to my mind, the strenuous debates over the Civil Rights Bill ( 1964? ). I do recall the Republican majority insisting & voting for passage-but at what an awful cost.

As a young teen, I recall being shaken to the core, watching & listening to Sen. Goldwater & others calmly discuss the willing destruction of our property rights, our freedom of association, an obvious extension of the government's already vast powers-to achieve what we all knew to be simple fairness & equity for what was seen as the underclass, the persons of color so easily discriminated against. Earlier, I had been instructed by my parents as to some obvious flaws of our society, the need to deal with all people in fairness & equity. My parents ( no liberals-quite the opposite ) had, quietly, led by example in large & small ways. I was amazed at being happy to see these changes-to know that a society could freely improve. I knew, watching the debates of the senate, that the goal might instead be achieved with simple condemnation-attitude change via positive example & selective condemnation of those who failed to see the truth... I had, by then, already seen remarkable & subtle changes in society which were moving us toward the proper standard of personal & public behavior-the ball having been put in motion long before by the Warren Court & the public figures of the Civil Rights Movement.

Even at a tender & uninformed age, I knew this Civil Rights Bill was one of several steps in a basic & monumental restructuring of our system. The contract was being altered & gov power so expanded, I was frightened to realize it might be so handily changed. I saw, in a flash, that day on the black & white news tape, the darker future.

This or any dentist, fool or not, is being perfectly logical to avoid anyone he or she chooses-it's still a private office-neither the gov, the ACLU, nor some homosexual interest group paid his share of education costs, his license fees, nor his overhead. Neither will others fund his retirement or, failing to protect himself, his health care. Ditto his patient's exposure(s) from a more careless physician. Anyone in such close proximity to anyone else ( where exposure to bodily fluids may be common ) is a gambler, not to protect themselves & the patient.

Putting aside the merits of this particular case, see how the public, the state & a few of us here, take apart the behavior of anyone who dares take caution, discretion, religious scruples & assert mere personal prerogatives. When people employ the term 'fascist' with reference to the Left, I see why-it certainly fits.

I was so moved by the Civil Rights debates as to pay far more attention to the Constitution. I wonder if anyone else does?

[HELLRAISER II]

I agree, yet a mother can abort (kill) a fetus and they would never bat an eye. In fact they would probably applaud their act, yet the Dentist can't choose his patients he sees. That's B.S.