Wisconsin 'conscience clause' vetoed

Personally, I don't like the term used for this bill...as it really should be called a "lack of conscience" clause.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a bill Friday that would have allowed medical professionals to deny patient care based on their own ideology or faith.

The so-called conscience clause would have protected health care workers from legal or professional repercussions if they refused to perform certain medical procedures -- including withdrawal of a patient's feeding tube -- based on moral or religious convictions. Doyle said the bill violated a fundamental principal of medicine.

This bill had to be a religious-right driven bill. Had to be...no one with any real sanity would support something as asinine as this. I'd call the governor a hero for vetoing this, and smack every member of the legislature who voted for it over the head. That it passed the legislature at all is amazing, as it's clearly a religion driven law, and the two aren't supposed to mix.

Asinine, you say? Yes...think about it:

Suppose you got to the head of the checkout line at Pick 'n Save and the cashier, a dedicated member of PETA, refused to ring up your eggs, meat and milk. Or the clerk at Barnes & Noble, a fundamentalist Christian, would not sell you a copy of Darwin's "Origin of Species."
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The Legislature should stay out of the business of promoting religious agendas. Decisions about medication should stay where they belong: between doctor and patient.

Otherwise, we might as well start hiring Pentecostalist bartenders who won't serve you a beer.

Sound silly...that would be the precedent set by a law like this. We're already seeing the problem with pharmicists refusing to fill prescriptions.

For those who would complain that forcing people to sell things/perform procedures that go against their morals...no one forced them to take the job in question. If you think your job may put you in the position of doing something you are morally/politically/religiously opposed to, you are probably in the wrong line of work.

(Story courtesy of Mark at Loaded Mouth.)

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