Religion
Related: About this forumCivil war in the church!: Catholics tell bishops to stop playing doctor
Catholics are among a growing number of people of faith who want American bishops to keep out of their medical careKATIE MCDONOUGH
Pope Francis last week issued an expansive document outlining the mission behind his papacy, including a strongly worded indictment of free market economics and the government leaders and corporate executives who are the systems greatest beneficiaries. The popes declarations on poverty and economic justice may have been a new turn for the church, but the rest of the 84-page document was a regurgitation of the same old doctrine.
Specifically, the churchs hard line on abortion and other issues of reproductive justice remains as rigid and as dangerous as ever. Which is why the timing of the American Civil Liberty Unions lawsuit alleging gross medical negligence against the United States Congress of Catholic Bishops, filed just days after the pope released his Evangelii Gaudium, felt significant. The suit was a necessary reminder that a church doctrine that refuses to respect womens bodily autonomy and the medical judgment of doctors no matter how progressive its economic agenda is still a dangerous thing. (Related: Economic justice and reproductive justice are not distinct agendas, but I digress.)
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Tamesha Means, a 27-year-old mother of two who presented at the emergency room of a Catholic hospital in Michigan the only hospital within 30 miles after her water broke while she was 18 weeks pregnant. According to the suit, Means fetus had virtually no chance of survival, but the hospital did not tell her this information, nor did it tell her that the safest treatment option would be to induce labor in order to terminate the doomed pregnancy.
Instead, she says she was sent home with Tylenol. When she returned later that same night, bleeding and with an elevated temperature, she says the hospital attempted to send her home a second time. Means experienced a painful miscarriage while the hospital staff was in the process of filing her discharge papers. Mercy Health Muskegon has not yet responded to Salons request for comment.
full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/12/05/civil_war_in_the_church_catholics_defy_bishops_on_hospitals/
cbayer
(146,218 posts)The issue of the RCC's involvement healthcare is complex. While they provide services in some communities that no one else is providing and to populations that no one else want to serve, they also come with a lot of strings attached baggage that is not in the best interests of some patients.
In New Orleans, the Charity hospital system was invaluable to the poor and disenfranchised for many, many years. When the state took over the system, things fell apart dramatically.
I'm not sure how we address those kinds of issues, but I would much prefer to see governments providing healthcare with no strings attached than the church, but I sure don't see them stepping up to the plate very many places.
And, for profit health care centers come with their own strings and limitations (not wanting to serve poor people being the biggest one). So which is more egregious? Where does the solution lie?
trotsky
(49,533 posts)in many of those communities served only by a Catholic hospital, it's not that "no one else wants to serve" them, it's that a secular hospital was PURCHASED by a Catholic hospital organization.
Please state facts correctly, cbayer. Regardless of whether they support your personal agenda and beliefs.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)According to Wikipedia, "the Louisiana Department of Health and Human Resources (DHH) took control of Charity Hospital in 1970." I'd be curious to know how and when you think "things fell apart dramatically" and if there is a way you can tell whether that happened solely BECAUSE the state took over, or if there were other reasons as well. The way you stated it, implies that under the church everything was great, and then when it was out of the picture, everything was ruined.
And prior to 1970, it's not like it was a purely religious venture, either. When Huey Long was governor, state funds were used to dramatically expand and improve the hospital system. According to this site,
Long modernized and expanded the states institutions for its neglected disabled and mentally ill patients, abolishing the practice of chaining patients to their chairs in plow stocks and providing modern therapy and dental care. His administration also built institutions for mentally disabled children and epileptics. He reformed the prison system by providing inmates dental and medical care.
Through the Board of Health, Long tripled funding for public healthcare. The states free health clinics grew from 10 in 1926 to 31 in 1933, providing free immunizations to 67 percent of the rural population.
The way you casually summarize the history of Charity in NO doesn't really acknowledge the depth of the facts. Almost as if you were intentionally distorting and editorializing in order to support a point you want to make.
BlueStreak
(8,377 posts)Where is the mercy at Mercy Health Muskegon?