{"id":1621,"date":"2018-01-28T12:39:58","date_gmt":"2018-01-28T18:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/?p=1621"},"modified":"2018-01-28T12:39:59","modified_gmt":"2018-01-28T18:39:59","slug":"religious-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/religious-doctor\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am A Religious Doctor, And I Would NEVER Refuse To Treat A Patient"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Name of God: The Exceedingly and Everlastingly Loving and Caring<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

The Trump Administration has created a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division<\/a> at the Department of Health and Human Services. This office was set up to hear complaints from medical professionals who have felt pressured to provide medical services that conflict with their religious beliefs. Roger Severino, head of civil-rights enforcement at HHS, said in an article<\/a> in the Atlantic: “the state should not force people to go against their integrated view of humanity.”<\/p>\n

This was met by considerable alarm by many civil-rights advocates. The very article title in the Atlantic read: “When the Religious Doctor Refuses to Treat You.” The article cited some horror stories:<\/p>\n

One 2000 case<\/a> involved a New Jersey labor-and-delivery nurse named Yvonne Shelton, whose Pentecostal faith meant, to her, that she could not participate \u201cdirectly or indirectly in ending a life\u2024\u201d In 1995, Shelton\u2019s hospital admitted a patient who was \u201cstanding in a pool of blood\u201d and diagnosed with placenta previa<\/a>. The doctor ordered an emergency C-section, and Shelton was told to scrub in to assist. But when she learned the procedure would terminate the pregnancy, Shelton refused to participate, delaying the procedure by 30 minutes, the hospital claimed. Shelton was fired after refusing another job within the same hospital.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

In 2015, a lesbian couple in Michigan had a pediatrician decline <\/a>to care for their six-day-old infant, Bay, because, as the doctor later explained to the couple, \u201cafter much prayer following your prenatal, I felt that I would not be able to develop the personal patient-doctor relationships that I normally do with my patients.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, I am a religious doctor. My faith is very important to me, and it gives me the strength to tend to very sick people in the ICU. At the same time, I can honestly say that there has never come a time when being a doctor has conflicted with my convictions. Though I am a religious doctor, I would never refuse to treat someone. Never.<\/p>\n

Of course, it is not right to compel a healthcare provider to perform a medical procedure – such as an elective abortion – against their will. At the same time, we need to be very careful not to take this “conscientious objection” too far.<\/p>\n

For instance, it would be absolutely wrong for me – as both a doctor and a Muslim, frankly – to refuse treatment to someone who contracted HIV from IV drug abuse because Islam prohibits drugs. That would be unconscionable. No matter how someone may have gotten sick, my job as a doctor is to take care of them. Period.<\/p>\n

Being blessed to be a doctor or nurse – or any other health-related occupation – is something that can never be taken for granted. People place their complete trust in us – total strangers – to take care of them and be a force of God’s Healing power. We must take great care in focusing on the work to make them well. Period.<\/p>\n

Imposing our own moral judgments and religious beliefs on the healthcare of others – even in times of life and death – is a dangerous slippery slope. I, for one, refuse to take this path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imposing my beliefs onto the healthcare of others is a slippery slope. This doctor, for one, refuses to take this path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[885,883,884,124,776],"class_list":["post-1621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-common-word","tag-conscience","tag-healthcare","tag-objections","tag-religion","tag-religious"],"yoast_head":"\nI Am A Religious Doctor, And I Would NEVER Refuse To Treat A Patient - Common Word, Common Lord<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/commonwordcommonlord\/religious-doctor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Am A Religious Doctor, And I Would NEVER Refuse To Treat A Patient - Common Word, Common Lord\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Imposing my beliefs onto the healthcare of others is a slippery slope. 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Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. In 2007, his blog \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" was nominated for a Brass Crescent Award for a blog that is \u201cthe most stimulating, insightful, and philosophical, providing the best rebuttals to extremist ideology and making an impact whenever they post.\u201d \"God, Faith, and a Pen\" has also received an award for being one of the \"Top Muslim Blogs for 2010\" by Awarding The Web. In addition to writing, Dr. Hassaballa helped found the Chicago Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations and currently serves on their board of directors. He also co-founded the Bayan H. 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