Angry in the Great White North

From SFGate:

A Southern California lesbian who sued her doctors for discrimination after they refused to artificially inseminate her is now fighting both them and the state's largest medical association over whether doctors should have the right to refuse treatment on religious grounds.

The doctor, Christine Brody, had told this couple that she would help with the fertility treatments but would not perform the insemination because of her beliefs. Another doctor at the clinic, the only one covered by the couples' health plan, would perform that part of the procedure.

When the time came, none of the doctors would perform the procedure. The clinic then sent the couple to another clinic, covering the extra expenses, and after the insurer made an exception for the second clinic with the first clinic arguing for the exception. A baby boy was born, and he's now three-and-a-half.

The couple are pregnant again, with twins.

So all is good, right? They got their baby, the doctor did not break her beliefs, an effort was made by all involved to accomodate everyone.

But it's the principle of the thing:

"If you provide a fertility service, you should do it for everybody, not just one person. It's a business, not a religion. I respect religious beliefs, but you just don't pick and choose who to treat, especially if they have a medical condition," [Guadalupe] Benitez said.

It's always amusing to watch how religious beliefs are "respected" except when they actually mean something.

And since when was not being pregnant a medical condition? Or maybe she was talking about the fact that one fertile fully-functional uterus plus one fertile fully-functional uterus equals no baby. I wonder when they'll come up for a cure for that problem.

Maybe they did. It's called a "man". OK, enough mocking for now.

Consider these words from Joel Ginsberg, executive director of the San Francisco-based Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, one of the 16 groups that filed a brief in Benitez's case:

Ginsberg offered the hypothetical examples of an Orthodox Jewish restaurant owner who refuses to allow men and women to sit together or a Muslim shop owner barring women who do not wear head coverings.

Actually, I don't see the problem here either. It's not like you are discriminating based on skin colour or gender, which are aspects of a person that cannot be changed. These are cultural discriminations, requiring people to conform to certain rules or take their business elsewhere.

Why Ginsberg thinks his analogy is even remotely relevant is beyond me.

Benitez was not being denied life-saving treatment, nor did she have a "condition" of any kind. It was an elective treatment, and frankly a narcissistic one. The vast majority of people, including Benitez, can have children without spending tens of thousands of dollars. But a homosexual wants us to pay through insurance premiums for him or her to have access to technology so that he or she can have children without having to alter his or her lifestyle.

If I were a member of that plan, I might be tempted to say that my right to control how my money is spent is being trampled here. Well, I should be used to that by now.

In the case of fertility treatments, doctors who perform them have always struggled with the responsibility of bringing a child into the world in a situation which might not be the best. They have struggled with that in regards to unmarried women, unmarried couples, unemployed people.

For some like Brody, a gay household is problematic.

I am bothered that Brody gave Benitez the treatments in the first place. I think Brody is getting burned for trying to be accomodating. If she had refused treatment altogether, it is less likely this suit would have been filed, since an alternate provider could have been identified early on. But Brody tried to help, to meet Benitez halfway, and now she'll pay the price for her flexibility.

If the case goes against Brody, and I bet it will, expect a steady movement of doctors and other health providers out of California and into more rights-friendly jurisdictions.

Remember, Brody was true to her beliefs, and Benitez still had her baby. The result will be fewer doctors for everyone.

So much for principles.