A Catholic-run hospital faces a lawsuit for refusing breast augmentation surgery to a transgendered person, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
Charlene Hastings, a 57-year-old San Franciscan, inquired about the surgery at Seton Medical Center. According to Hastings, a surgical coordinator refused to allow the surgery. “She was saying, ‘It’s not God’s will,’ ” Hastings said. “I couldn’t believe it. It’s a blatant case of discrimination.”
Kristina Wertz, legal director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco, claimed Seton and other area hospitals put up “significant barriers” to care. Wertz believed the hospital’s policy violates the Unruh Act, a state law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation. “There’s simply no religious exemption in the Unruh Act,” Wertz said. “We’re talking about a type of care that’s OK for one class but not another.”
I defend the patient’s right to have whatever surgery they feel they need. I also feel that a religiously run hospital should be able to refuse medical treatments it does not agree with. After all, isn’t freedom for everyone?
January 10, 2008 at 10:41 pm
But then where does the line get drawn? What about Jehovah’s Witnesses refusing blood transfusions for their kids or Catholic-run hospitals refusing birth control. How about patients that have disorders that make them believe that amputating a limb would give them peace? When do we decide that what one believes is a ‘need’ or right no longer the correct belief?
It is very shaky ground. Transgender surgery involves far more that just the surgery itself. I do not think that a Catholic-run hospital would even be prepared for the surgical need, let alone the psychological needs for this person. I just don’t know.
January 11, 2008 at 12:05 am
True, very true. I think you are right, I think I just don’t know. I believe that a Catholic hospital has rights, but so does the patient.
February 19, 2008 at 1:26 am
In terms of medical emergencies, the hospital should do whatever it can to save the life (or limb or whatever) regardless of belief.
For something aesthetic like breast augmentations, there are other hospitals.