The 12 Crazies of Christmas

For a long time I've complained about the mixture of science and religion in the US. We've all heard the 'separation of Church and state' monologue too many times to remember. Yet, some groups fail to get it.

First, please allow me to state for the record that bioethics is far more willing than I am to accommodate religious views. However, they do it in a way that I am agreeable to. Bioethics generally looks at the public's belief about these issues. For example, more than 60% of Americans support abortion in some form. The majority of those, Catholics. Therefore, it's not what Bishops or the Pope says that matters to bioethists, it's what is actually believed and practiced by the people.

So, when the Vatican issued their recent rant against many bioethic concerns in medicine, I was overly joyed to read it with a glass of Spanish sherry. In a document known as Dignitas Personae, the big V is seeking to tell us what is permissible in my office, bench labs, your bedroom and home, at the pharmacy counter, and pharmaceutical companies. Yes, you read that right. It no longer matters that I have been to medical school or that women seek to control the fact that without birth control and the increase in secondary education amongst women in many developed nations, the average would like bear 12-15 children over the course of their lifetimes.

Digitas bans the morning-after pill, the IUD and RU486 by stating that they result in what amounts to abortion. This is overly ambitious because abortion needs to be better defined because IUDs are not scientifically an abortion by the same means that Plan B is not either.

My sense is that this document is in part a response to Senator Barbara Boxer's (D-CA)proposed legislation in 2007 known as the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). President-elect Obama has stated he will sign the document. This has powerful consequences for everyone, especially Catholic hospitals across America who are loathe to provide abortion and other reproductive services to patients. Catholic hospitals account for about 1/3rd of hospitals in the US and are mainly located in areas of the country where private and other not-for-profit hospitals have no desire to be located. This includes small inner cities like Holyoke, MA and rural America like Port Jervis, New York. If FOCA is passed and the Catholic hospitals are brought to their knees, they have warned of a boycott and a strike to the public health system.

It is too soon to tell whether FOCA will pass. Despite the efforts of Senator Boxer and the overwhelming support of the Democrats in the Senate, many believe the legislation will not pass. I do not happen to be one of them, but then again, I fall into the fringe side of pro abortion ethicist-in-training (My new eponymous title as Dr. Dr. AG-to-be.)who argue the point of abortion to argue the point of abortion. more...