Saturday, February 11, 2006

Stevenson bill sets dangerous precedent


A hearing for HB 1539, the Health Care Rights of Conscience Act, sponsored by Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City, will be held 8 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15 in a meeting of the Children and Families Committee, to be held in Hearing Room 7.
Stevenson's bill would allow health care professionals to not participate in a health care service that violates his or her conscience.
Without getting into the politics of abortion (and I have always been a staunch pro-lifer), it is still easy to see this as dangerous legislation. What if the same type of bill would be proposed for police officers allowing them to pick and choose what kind of people will receive protection and which will be thrown to the wolves.

3 comments:

Seth said...

Didn't they already cut Medicaid?

Seth said...

Ok, that wasn't fair. They will put psychotic suicidal would be patients on a sliding scale that takes two weeks to process and still cost an initial 150$.

Anonymous said...

I don't think they are currently required to violate their conscience unless it would be a contractual obligation imposed by their employer. For example, a Pharmacist was required to fill a prescription for "morning after" contraception pill by his chain pharmacy employer. That is a matter that should be handled between the employer and the employee - and unless the employee is being required to break the law, the other citizens of MO have no dog in that fight. Sounds like Stevenson is earning some of those donations that flooded in from local doctors - check his donation records. By the way, Randy, I don't really see how you can separate this bill from the abortion debate, I'm pretty sure that is what's driving it.