More U.S. doctors are refusing to treat patients for religious reasons, causing a collision between religious freedom and discrimination laws.
The list of services that some doctors are refusing to perform includes artificial insemination, use of fetal tissues and prescribing Viagra, USA Today said Friday.
Jill Morrison of the National Women's Law Center said problems occur when physicians offer procedures to some patients but not others.
USA Today said the California Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a lawsuit over a fertility treatment denied to a lesbian. A gay man in Washington state recently settled out of court with a doctor who refused to prescribe him Viagra.
Patrick Gillen, legal counsel for a Michigan-based public interest law firm that defends religious freedom, told the newspaper doctors shouldn't be required to perform procedures that violate their religious faith, especially "if the patients can get the treatment elsewhere."
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
Related stories:
NY family opposes end to care for brain-dead boy
(AP) -- A Washington hospital has asked a judge for permission stop treating a brain-dead 12-year-old cancer patient, even though his ultra-religious New York parents want to keep him on life support.
Spirituality protects against depression better than church attendance
Those who worship a higher power often do so in different ways. Whether they are active in their religious community, or prefer to simply pray or meditate, new research out of Temple University suggests that a person's religiousness – also called religiosity – can offer insight into their risk for depression.
Black patients with terminal cancer more likely to choose aggressive care at end of life
Black patients with advanced cancer were more likely than whites to die in a hospital intensive care unit, reflecting a greater preference among blacks for life-extending treatment even in the face of a terminal prognosis, according to a study led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The findings will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago on Monday.
Psychiatrists: Least religious but most interested in patients' religion
Although psychiatrists are among the least religious physicians, they seem to be the most interested in the religious and spiritual dimensions of their patients, according to survey data published in the December issue of the
American Journal of Psychiatry.
Psychiatrists are the least religious of all physicians
A nationwide survey of the religious beliefs and practices of American physicians has found that the least religious of all medical specialties is psychiatry. Among psychiatrists who have a religion, more than twice as many are Jewish and far fewer are Protestant or Catholic, the two most common religions among physicians overall.
Study: Doctors think faith helps patients
A new survey finds that 85 percent of U.S. doctors believe religious faith can help patients have a good outcome.
Scientists study music hallucinations
Psychiatrists at St. Cadoc's Hospital in Wales have issued the largest case-series study ever published concerning musical hallucinations.
Study investigates ethnic disparities in treatment of trauma patients
The initial evaluation and management of injured patients from minority ethnic groups nationwide appears to be similar to that of non-Hispanic white patients, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.