New Distractions

gravityisverycompelling:

And you certainly wouldn’t charge her for a crime if she chose not to.

We do not force organ donations, despite the overwhelming demand; we don’t even take them from dead people unless they gave permission whilst alive.

Living, active, thinking people who are sick can only get help if someone else is WILLING to provide it.

So why

Do people think it’s okay

To force women to sustain a life they don’t want to sustain?

(via ethiopienne)

bittergrapes:

goldenheartedrose:

minionier:

rabbleprochoice:

If you want to be a doctor and there is even ONE possible scenario where you will not be willing or will refuse to treat a patient, then you need to find a new fucking career aspiration because people like you do not deserve the privilege of healing people.

Every patient deserves the standard of care and if you aren’t willing to treat EVERY patient with the standard of care under EVERY possible scenario then you are not prepared to be a physician.

That includes drug users. That includes drunk patients who killed a family of four in a car crash. That includes patients who want emergency contraception after their rapes. That includes patients who may have mental health issues. That includes patients of all religions, races, and cultures. And it includes patients of all sexualities and genders.

If you aren’t willing to treat EVERY patient, then get the fuck out of the health care system. Immediately.

Love,

Rabble

Yes with reservations. If the patient consistently refuses to be treated, I’d have hir referred to someone who will be able to work with hir needs. For instance, if you don’t want to vaccinate your kids for whatever reason, awesome, but I don’t have to let you keep bringing them to my waiting room to endanger other patients.

Ah, yes.  That I could see.  Though there is some controversy where doctors can refuse to treat kids who are nonvaccinated for medical reasons (there are some towns with only one doctor, for example, and so it becomes really tricky).  I agree, though - there are some exceptions.  But I have a feeling this is combating the whole “I’m a doctor but I won’t perform an abortion” type of idea more than the other scenarios you mentioned.

I sort of disagree with the OP only because sometimes doctors turn away patients not because they don’t want to help them, but because they don’t have the expertise. Like, I’ve been refused treatment from doctors before because they didn’t feel qualified in what I needed, but all of them gave a reason why and then helped me find someone else who would do what I needed.

This may seem like semantics. I get the point of the original post, and yes, it’s important that doctors not let their personal biases interfere with a patient’s care, but there are completely legitimate reasons that a doctor might turn a patient away that have absolutely nothing to do with their own feelings and everything to do with their judgment of their own competency. Not every doctor is qualified to treat every condition or every patient. That’s why specialists exist. And I’d MUCH prefer that a doctor tell me, “You know what, I don’t feel I’m able to handle [x] condition, but I know a specialist who would work well for you/I know a doctor who’s better versed in what you need” than bumble around and fuck everything up for me because they were overconfident in their ability to deal with my specific concerns.

For example, not all doctors are bilingual or culturally competent in a specific region/culture. I’m sure that a Spanish-speaking patient would much prefer to see someone who can converse with them in both Spanish and English, simply because that’s easier for them and will lead to less confusion or miscommunication. So someone who doesn’t have those language skills may very well suggest a doctor better equipped to deal with those specific issues.

Or, frex, I go to Howard Brown Health Center for my check-ups because I’m trans*, and they have folks who know the ins and outs of transgenderism and can handle any interplay that may happen between my gender identity and my health. And I was referred to them by another doctor who didn’t feel comfortable enough with trans* issues to be able to work with me, and that’s okay. Because not all doctors can treat all things/deal with all communities! That’s just the way it works!

So in that way I feel that the OP was a bit reductive, because plainly enough, it just doesn’t work that way. Not every doctor is going to work with every patient, for a myriad of reasons, and that’s why there’s specialists and culture-specific clinics and all other manner of things. Every doctor has their pigeonhole, their specialty, their special interest, and that’s why we have so many doctors in the world: because each one approaches medicine a slightly different way, with a slightly different background, and thus works best with a slightly different spectrum of clients.

(via ethiopienne)

ethiopienne:

from statements like “i vote conservative because of my fiscal beliefs even though i’m socially liberal”

you are LITERALLY saying your own damn wallet matters significantly more to you than the livelihood (and lives, in many cases) of PoC, LGBTQIA folk, cis-women and everyone else who needs and deserves access to basic reproductive health services, non-European immigrants, Muslims and people who “look” Muslim, the unemployed poor AND the working poor (hey didya know many of the people at and below the poverty line hold jobs, often 2 or 3?), etc…

people who do not have the freedom to vote “with their wallets” instead of with their identities, people who are increasingly losing the “guaranteed” right to vote AT ALL (hint: that’s GOP strategy, not a coincidence)

and if you think capitalism, especially unregulated capitalism, doesn’t DIRECTLY FUEL the perennial subjugation, genocide, rape, and brutalization of the “special identities” whose lives are worth less to you than your own wallet…

then i guess i don’t need to try any harder to prove my point about privilege, do i?

(via dionthesocialist)