If they were penguins...

This is how the bigoted hate filled religious-right effects people.

I can see Jesus taking this attitude. Strolling through the hillsides of Galilee coming across two women who need healing. Jesus would look up and say, "f**k YOU LESBOS!"

Well, that's one way to vet a new doctor.

Does that mean personal doctors HAVE to accept you as patients? I doubt it.
If my pick for a doctor had that attitude, I would just pick another.
Why is everyone so quick to sue?

Exactly, its not like you'd want a doc that was so vehemitly against your lifestyle anyway...

Doctors are paid by the government in Canada from the Medical Plan schedule of fees. They can refuse to accept more patients, but they cannot pick and choose who deserves care.

George Bush passed a law on his final days that gave US doctors and even receptionists the right to refuse patients on any reason they choose, fortunately it was one of the first laws that Obama put a big "FAIL" stamp on.

I agree that if the ladies in question do sue for financial gain, well, that is just greedy.

However, if they decide to sue more for the result of bringing this subject up before the public for deeper discussion, then I can agree with it.

Jeeze... couldn't they have just gone straight for a couple of hours??

Yes. Yes it does. If you let doctors deny patients treatment because of their sexual orientation...Then who's to say all the doctors in the area wouldn't refuse to treat gay patients?

If she can't stop her religious beliefs from interfering with her work, then she shouldn't have that job.

I think this case has been largely overblown.

Here's what I read: [Dr. Elias:] "I didn't refuse to treat them, I said it's better to find someone who has experience and will take this type of patients. There (are) some doctors who can treat them."

Of course, you could make that into evil religiously-motivated bigotry ("Grab your torches and pitchforks, it's time for a witch hunt!"), or you could take it at face value.

In cases such as this, I always refer to the words of Robert Hanlon: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

What's to stop all the the doctors in the area?

Quite simple:
$$$

Seriously unless the doctor is in an area that doesn't offer many options for other medical provider either due to sparsity of doctors period or scarcity of physicians of his/her specialty, they should be able to turn down any patient for any reason.

The market will almost always solve such problems.

I am for equal rights to homosexuals. Let them marry, let them adopt, let them do as they please. However the doctor should have rights as well. If there are other physicians in the area then no "rights" are being abused.

What makes lesbians different to treat than any other female?

If we were talking about someone who had different biological functions, then this would be a legitimate reason to refuse someone. Sexual choice doesn't make any difference to a GP.

If this was about a Jewish couple being denied care by a German doctor or a black doctor refusing to treat white people, there would be a lot more uproar over the situation.

This religious belief bulls**t is getting out of control. Medical personal choosing who they treat or what kind of prescriptions they will fill based on their faith have no business being in health care to start. Your office agrees to take insurance a, then you must treat every single person that has insurance a, not those you deem worthy.

I walk into a drug store, I expect to get my medicine, not to find some a*****e with a bible shoved up his ass telling me I cannot have drug x because he thinks people with upper respiratory infections are in league with Lucifer.

Do your job or go home.

Imagine if everyone had this attitude during the civil rights movement.

They don't need any 'special' treatment, they are humans, nothing is different and her words are insulting. Brings me right back to a white doctor saying, I cannot treat non-whites, they need to see someone special.

If this was a isolated incident I would probably say yeah, lets take care of this problem and not let it get out of hand. However there has been way too much of this sort of thing going on.

Except they didn't and today is a different time with different values and beliefs. What was true of behavior 50 years ago is different today.

If civil rights protections were taken away, little would change. There would never be the acceptance of separate black and white water fountains for instance. Sure there would be some prejudice just as there is today. Civil rights laws doesn't wipe that away. The change in the values and beliefs of the public protects people's rights more than a law ever will. If the protections were removed most would still enjoy them. Also one can't deny the power of Capitalism. If civil rights protections were removed from laws, almost all would still enjoy those rights due to market forces.

Sure there would be pockets of rights violations on both sides, but over all things would be basically the same.

The thing is even if the law explicitly allowed doctors to refuse to see homosexual patients there would be plenty of doctors who would. There would be plenty of doctors who would utilize the fact that they did to attract other patients, straight and otherwise. Also doctors who became known for being prejudiced would likely find some of their patients leaving them.

That is why I feel the market forces would solve this problem. There should only be guarantees when the doctor is a monopoly or nearly one.

Perhaps I'm being naive. I sincerely think that the number of doctors who would rather lose money than treat homosexuals would be very very very tiny and wouldn't have an effect on a single patient - provided there were other doctors available.

Except it is an isolated incident. A very isolated incident.

Really? How do you figure that? How many have you seen? 1? 2? 5? Compare that to the number of patients who haven't met resistance.

No, this is an extremely rare event. As long as there are other doctors available there is no one harmed other than the doctor who will miss out on the money from the ladies as well as others who will likely leave his practice in protest.

Of course all my statement are for the American system, not the Canadian system or other places where the doctors are more government employees than independent contractors.

I live in the midwest and we have had a rash of this sort of thing happening here for the last year or two. About six months ago a couple of pharmacists were suspended for refusing to fill a prescription because it went against their religious beliefs.

Harm is done, hate and ignorance are furthered by such actions. Have a read here -

or here - Doctors Refuse Pap Test to Unmarried Women, Cite Religious Beliefs

Try Google and see just how many stories come up, to be expected though when we had the king of 'Gods Will' running the country.

Thanks for this. I see it is more prevalent than I thought.

In NYS... You have a right as a physician to deny your services to a patient... however, this is only if you provide access to physician of equal or better service to them.

On a sidenote its disgusting that someone would deny services to someone because of their sexual orientation. That being said I'm not going to be forced to treat a patient who has a huge swastika or is verbally disparaging to my personal beliefs.