Morals should never be a government mandate

By: Adam Murphy

Posted: 11/19/08

The Bush administration, quiet for so long, is at it again, trying to sneak something by the American public at a time when Barack Obama and the economy dominate the headlines.

According to a Washington Post article, the current administration is trying to pass a plan that empowers federal health officials to pull funding from more than 584,000 hospitals, clinics, health plans, doctors' offices and other health-related entities if any employee is forced to perform a medical function that violates his or her morals. This plan is aimed at curtailing abortion, contraception and any information regarding the two.

It is a roundabout way for the pro-life crowd to claim a small victory against the pro-choice.

If passed, it would allow doctors to deny birth control to patients on moral grounds.

Pushing morals while being totally bereft of them and a lack of foresight have characterized this administration from day one.

Would a patient with AIDS not receive treatment from a doctor because it violated the physician's morals?

Will a mother who is giving birth be refused an epidural because the doctor is a newly converted Scientologist who believes that using an anesthetic during birth is wrong?

There is far too much ambiguity when it comes to moral issues and where to draw the line. Catering to the morals of a select minority is nonsensical.

Health care is a right, and patients have a right to know from the mouth of a trained professional what is going on. Denying basic medical information on morality could lead to a situation in which doctors are able to pick and choose their patients.

Doctors understand when they take their Hippocratic Oath that they have to do some things they don't want to. It comes with the territory.

Can I morally object to paying taxes? Can I morally object to lifting that heavy box at work? I can, but I would find myself jobless pretty quickly, but at least my morals would not be compromised.

Doctors, by law, have to treat patients, no matter what, and they have to give that patient the best medical information they can.

Morals are largely dependent on cul-ture and circumstance. They do not belong in a professional setting or in the government.

The fundamentals of Western Society (literacy, democracy, voting) can never be comprised and should be the only laws that rule us. Separation of church and state is one of them.

Governments are supposed to be amoral. They are supposed to operate like machines, without emotion. But they aren't machines. They are people, driven by morals. I do not want my life or others' lives to be positively or negatively affected by an administration's morals.

Ignore red and blue America's morals, and your own, whatever they may be, and think about a world where doctors can refuse care based on their individual morals.

That is a world where medical care is dependent on culture and circumstance, not health. That is no world for me.