RIP Dr Tiller

[blamebrampton]

America, you sadden me. And to those churches who have preached hate against this man and his clinic for years, you are to blame, don't pretend otherwise.

In other news, the last survivor of the Titanic has died, which is one of those odd pieces of trivia that should mean nothing, and yet is still sad. Biscuit the spare cat has returned from wherever she has been hiding for the last week, and whoever cast Calista Flockhart as a character younger than Rachel Griffiths and only slightly older than Balthazar Getty is a cruel, cruel bastard.

Comments

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

The reporting on the murder here says that his clinic is one of only three in the US where late-term abortion is performed. This staggers me.

There are 300 million-odd Americans. Of the half who are likely to be pregnant at some point, that is at the very least hundreds of thousands of cases of cancer during pregnancy, of late-diagnosed serious birth defects that will lead to a life of suffering for any infant born.

How can it be a better option to kill a foetus with chemotherapy or radiation if a mother decides she wants to live? How can it be kinder to have a live birth that sees a baby go straight onto a respirator and stay there for its short, agonising existence?

Everything else aside, have none of the lunatics who think it's all right to preach hate against people like Dr Tiller ever BEEN to a farm? Why should people be accorded fewer rights in their suffering than animals?

I never saw Ally McBeal, and for this I am grateful. Though Pirate!Flockhart is an amusing idea ... I fear her space parrot would eat her.

[libby-drew.livejournal.com]

A pregnant woman diagnosed with cancer makes the decision herself as to whether she will abort or carry to term. Regardless, here, those procedures are performed in a hospital, not a clinic.

I fear her space parrot would eat her.
And thanks for this. Now it will be festering in my head all day. ;-p

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Well, that's something.

And you're very welcome. I only wish her name were actually Catherine so I could use the Pieces of Kate parrot joke I have been carrying around for years ...

[joanwilder.livejournal.com]

I'm always saddened to see something like this happen--not the way to settle differences in ideology.

Btw, there are provisions for late term abortions in the U.S. when they're medically necessary, and I don't have a problem with that at all, and neither do many people who are against late-term abortions in general. I had the misfortune to assist at one, and it's a horrific procedure, and the thought that it'd be done 'electively' without good reason is abhorrent and irresponsible. The one I was involved with was merely a matter of the woman leaving it too long for a not very good reason.

But genetic defects, mother's life endangered, damage to baby due to neonatal carcinogens--those are routinely done in hospitals all the time.

[noeon.livejournal.com]

You've raised a question I've been wondering about. His clinic performed elective late-term abortions and women would have had the option, if deemed medically necessary, to have abortions at the hospital? With the kerfuffle about pharmacists not handing out "morning after" pills, I'm wondering if there were practical difficulties facing women who needed their care deemed medically necessary. Not that it makes murder any less murder (Dr. Tiller's that is).

[joanwilder.livejournal.com]

Nursing professionals, as well as others (pharmacists, doctors, O.R. techs, etc) have the right to refuse to participate in procedures that are considered morally ambiguous/conflict with their own ethical beliefs. This is usually not a problem, as there are always people who don't have those objections and can step up. Note that this does not apply to emergency, life-saving treatment provided, say, in an ER. In the case of procedures where the life of the mother/baby is at risk, there're are specialty OB/GYN groups that handle only this type of patient.

The question of pharmacists refusing to dispense the morning after pill is more problematic, and although much has been made by the media about this issue, for the large majority of pharmacists it's a question of liability, as they're required to counsel the individual before dispensing the drug pak. Plan B, if given to a pregnant woman, can cause major congenital/genetic defects, so it's a gray area. What if the woman is hoping to use it to abort instead of prevent pregnancy? Who's liable when she carries a pregnancy to term and there're problems? From the pharmacists I've spoken with when I worked for a major healthcare insurer, this was their main reservation, not the idea of emergency contraception per se. In the U.S, at least, I think much of this problem would go away if they just take the pharmacist out of the loop.