Thread by rhema.
Mortality indeed stalks us all. But I'm talking about the death culture—abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.
The death peddlers here and abroad seek to remove legal protection from pro-life doctors who refuse to perform abortion, refer for abortion, or participate in euthanasia. Euphemisms like "reproductive freedom," the "right to choose," and "death with dignity" justify the assault on our patient's lives and our rights of conscience. But in the midst of this inversion of right and wrong, pro-life doctor groups worldwide are banding together to form a Hippocratic Registry of Physicians.
Admittedly, physicians were not always healers. Millennia ago, healers used their power and status in society to kill and otherwise take advantage of the weak and helpless. Hippocrates, or someone like him, recognized the problem, and that is how we came to have the oath the public thinks we doctors all take, the Oath of Hippocrates.
Physicians who sign on to the Hippocratic Registry acknowledge the oath's six concepts: transcendence, which means submission to a higher authority; medicine as a moral, not just technical, activity; respect for life, meaning no abortion or euthanasia; a covenant between the physician and patient, not just a code of conduct; physician honesty and integrity; and collegiality between like-minded physicians.
Of course, we doctors don't take Hippocrates' Oath any longer and haven't for decades. New doctors recite a much changed charge filled with superficial, contemporary language, if they recite anything at all. Hippocrates' Oath has been relegated to the dustbin of modern ethical thought. "I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody if asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly, I will not give a woman an abortive remedy," it reads.
The legalization of abortion in America meant the Oath was out. But even with abortion legalized, pro-life physicians could still practice according to their consciences. The American College of OB/GYN, however, threw down the gauntlet in November 2007 with its Ethics Statement No. 385, which defined any OB/GYN doctor who did not perform or refer for abortion as unethical. The American Board of OB/GYN quickly followed with a new requirement that an OB/GYN doctor had to agree with the ethics of the College to pass the OB/GYN boards. Washington state and Oregon have declared euthanasia (assisted suicide) a legal activity in their states. Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton, advocates infanticide when he writes, "killing a disabled infant is not morally equivalent to killing a person. Very often it is not wrong at all."
So, how do I respond to this challenge to my rights of conscience as a pro-life OB/GYN physician in this age? If my rights of conscience are legislated away, how long before the state revokes my license to practice medicine for refusing to perform or refer for abortion? How long before admission to medical school requires a promise to support death? (Get rid of those troublesome pro-lifers at the front end.)
This Hippocratic Registry of Physicians encourages me. The group includes doctors of any faith who value life and the tenets of Hippocrates' Oath. Although in its infancy, one could imagine a similar registry of other medical organizations such as hospitals, nursing homes, hospice organizations, pharmacies—a literal competing health-care system that honors life.
As our society "advances" to barbarisms abandoned millennia ago, I pray Hippocrates' idea will again catch fire and people will once again seek care from doctors with whom their life is safe and sacred—no matter what.
Thread by me.
Your views and Patricia Ireland’s may not be that different…
This week, as a movement, the Pro-Life community has been fiercely attacked by the mainstream media. Unfortunately, because of the few who came out in support of Dr. Tiller’s murder, the many of us have suffered by being called terrorists and extremists. All of us who believe in the dignity of life from conception to death understand that this was a ruthless killing of what Kansas law considers to be an innocent man. Therefore, I am not writing about whether or not we are terrorists; I don’t wish to dignify that accusation with a response. I do think, however, something far more worthy of discussion has come to light as a result of this controversy, and it starts with a quote from Patricia Ireland, former President of the National Organization for Women.
Ms. Ireland was on the O’Reilly Factor Tuesday night to discuss the media’s portrayal of Dr. Tiller’s life as a late term abortionist versus the public’s opinion on late term abortions. During the course of their conversation, O’Reilly asked Ms. Ireland when she believes life begins. She responded by saying, "I think immediately upon conception there is life." She believes just as you and I do that life begins at conception! How then does she reconcile the fact that abortion is murder with a “woman’s right to choose”? She went onto say, "but that is the wrong question. Fetuses do not grow inside Petri dishes, they grow inside real live women who have their own issues of health, their own responsibilities, their own dreams and hopes.”
So, as long as a woman feels that a child wouldn’t coincide with her plans for life, then she should be allowed to have an abortion? How far shall we carry out this ideology? I would assume that Ms. Ireland doesn’t contend that you “gain” life as you move forward in it. So, if she feels that life begins at conception but it is okay to end that life at 28 weeks of pregnancy, what is to stop her from ending the child’s life at 5 years old when the mother gets a job in another city and just doesn’t feel like a child will fit in with those plans? Obviously Ms. Ireland wouldn’t condone this, because it doesn’t make any sense. Just like it doesn’t make sense that one would condone an abortion for some arbitrary reason like the hopes and dreams of the pregnant woman, if you understand that life begins at conception.
Personally, I think this could prove to be the proverbial “chink in the armor” of the pro-abortion movement. I think we, in the pro-life community, need to hold her out as an example to demonstrate the absurdity of this position. I think they were able to pick up a lot of followers in the movement, because they sold them on the idea that life didn’t begin at conception and therefore abortion wasn’t murder. I don’t think the general population of people who are pro-choice understand that life does begin at conception. What will be the impact now that one of their leaders has readily admitted on national television that it does?
65 years of age and up: death sentence = rationed care.