Look! An Update!

[ase]

Dear Mr. Bush, I hope health care providers refuse to treat you on moral grounds. If you don't believe in treating patients, don't go into medicine. Super headdesk FAIL!

This is probably a really harsh judgment, but it's the head-on collision of two people's rights to hold a moral position. Someone has to give; I'm inclined to force the doctor to make way, especially in regions or health care programs where there isn't a choice to see someone else. Who should enforce "morality"? What is morality? I'm inclined to sacrifice codes of should and should-not to compassion for the currently living.

I don't care what the pedants say, it's winter. Cold, dark winter. The day starts late with gray clouds. Sometimes they don't completely cover the sky. By lunch, they've thinned enough that the sun is only masked by gauzy clouds. After midday, the sun falls back into clouds; the difference between indoors and outdoors is temperature (sometimes) and how high the "ceiling" is. Tuesday night I hitched a ride home with two of my coworkers; we saw two accidents on the road, and then the drizzle tapping on the roof shifted to ice.

Took today and tomorrow off work to kill use-or-lose. Finished 90% of my holiday shopping last night. Today I have spoken less than five sentences to other people all day, finished The Fellowship of the Ring, and made dents in two other books. Fabulous, fabulous introvert paradise.

Monday I got to participate in cool bonus offsite training, and ultimately put in a ten hour day plus dinner after work. Call it twelve hours of coworker interaction. It was good, but a lot of face time. So I am super glad I'm not at work for the the rest of the week. Besides all that holiday stuff to do.

This will be my holiday present to me. There is a strong possibility I will scream like a little girl and take a day off work when Regenesis ships to me. I got bored and made a playlist for this book! Okay, so it's getting redone now that I have Dresden Dolls and Coin-Operated Boy in my life (and by the way, is it just me, or is the Dresden Dolls discography tend to the really creepy?). But the point is, I have inappropriate love for Cherryh's novels. If I finish the other books I'm in the middle of, I'm going to reread Cyteen before Regenesis. I haven't been this excited about a book in a while.

Comments

[yi-sen.livejournal.com]

An excellent blog entry by a doctor (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/12/18/13479/090/683/674615) on the health care ruling.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Bets on how fast the Supreme Court will toss this one? I just - what the heck? If you object to abortions, specialize in infectious disease. If you have that much of a problem with "killing a life", don't be a pharmacist. There! You have solved your Plan B crisis!

I think the consequences of this ruling may outrun its crafters' intentions. Unfortunately, since GWB has money, he is unlikely to be bitten by the sharp end of his intentions.

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered about this morality clause: doesn't it just equate to a paid sinecure for Christian Scientists?

"Yes I'm a pharmacist, but I won't prescribe _anything_ for you because prayer should suffice...and I won't tell you where else you can go either."

...and now just a hypothetical person couldn't even be dismissed.

[ase.livejournal.com]

I disagree with this legislation from square one.

Also, the irony of a Christian Scientist pharmacist - it seems an unlikely profession for someone of that religion.

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

It would have been unlikely, but a CS going into pharmacy _now_ could be paid without ever doing a lick of work...which would seem to be worth going through pharma training.

...kinda like a creationist getting their degree in biology so they can work for the Discovery Institute and say 'I'm a biologist and I say evolution is bunk!"

[ase.livejournal.com]

I don't see that happening, frankly: social pressure is a powerful thing. Also, discrimination happens. (Now there's a nightmare suit: Christian Scientist denied pharmacist position, sues citing 1st amendment rights. Controversy ensues.)

I wouldn't get too hung up on the "Christian Scientist employed at pharmacy, doesn't do work" scenario. There is always, after all, HR and paperwork.

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

I agree: an actual live person in that position seems unlikely. It's the fact that such a situation now seems openly _permitted_ that's the point. Reductio ad absurdum usually doesn't get played out in real-time...and proponents (to my limited awareness) aren't doing well coming up with a rebuttal stronger than "oh, they wouldn't do that." Which isn't very convincing.

Furthermore, I'll bet the proverbial pharmacist could probably dismiss HR and paperwork on religious grouds too. Lord nows _I_ think most of it is unholy. :P

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

Dresden Dolls: Creepy, yes. But given where they get their names (and maybe part of their shtick) it's only appropriate.

[ase.livejournal.com]

True. Technically quite good, and very smart, but they make Tori Amos look cheerful.

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

I don't care what the pedants say, it's winter.

Those particular pedants would be wrong. The solstice is midwinter, in other words, when you break that word apart and apply advanced language skills, you find it means the middle of the freaking winter. The idea that the end of December is the start of winter is a recent fad, as far as I can tell.

Those same pedants probably tell you not to end a sentence with a preposition either, or use singular they.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Wiki tells me that astronomical Winter is from the December solstice to the Spring equinox. I don't understand why this is the "winter" that winds up on calendars.

Early in life, I assumed that the seasons were arranged:

Spring: 1 Mar - 31 May
Summer: 1 Jun - 31 Aug
Fall: 1 Sept - 31 Nov
Winter: 1 Dec - 28 Feb

I still think that makes more meteorological sense for where I live than the astronomical dates.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I dunno. On one hand I think that in general it's probably a bad idea to pressure doctors to do something they don't want to do (see also doctor's resistance to notifying parents about an abortion or illegal immigration). Also, it seems rather harsh to say that someone who would otherwise make a completely awesome ob/gyn shouldn't go into the field because of one procedure they're not comfortable with performing in all cases. At least, I have no idea how my gynecologist feels about abortions, but I would whine and scream if he left the field :)

On the other hand, I have no sympathy whatsoever for the pharmacists. Dude, your job is to dispense drugs, not to judge whether you should withhold them or not. I don't want you asking me questions about my thyroid medication either. Period.

(I realize this is not terribly consistent. I don't know what the difference is-- I think it comes down to that I have more trust in doctors, which may be naive and misplaced, and also that I imagine abortions are a small part of what doctors usually do.)

[ase.livejournal.com]

On one hand I think that in general it's probably a bad idea to pressure doctors to do something they don't want to do . . . On the other hand, I have no sympathy whatsoever for the pharmacists.

I think there needs to be some balance of patient and doctor rights. Someone who's doing a job they dislike is going to muck it up (see me and the damn committee work I'm hating on right now); on the other hand, it's not your job to pass judgment on your patients. I think some sort of "I won't do this procedure, but [Dr. Other Guy] will" might be in order. However, for someone living in Middle of Nowhere South Dakota, Dr. Other Guy might be a 300 mile drive. Yay urban life with diverse treatment options?

Dude, your job is to dispense drugs, not to judge whether you should withhold them or not. I don't want you asking me questions about my thyroid medication either. Period.

I'm really waiting for some unintended consequences to rear up on this one. "I'm a pastafarian, mixing thyroid meds and antibiotics is against my religion" or whatever. I think this is the sort of executive order that is really poorly thought out in the worst way.

Consistency isn't something I'm going to cop to either: I'm reacting from my gut on this one, and my gut is saying O HAI NO most emphatically.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

We've been fighting the pharmacists over the Plan B pill here in Washington for quite some time now. Court ruling after court ruling, seesawing back and forth like, well, a seesaw. I don't even know where the courts stand on it at the moment.

It's a mess.

[ase.livejournal.com]

Ouch, sympathies. Sounds like a nightmare for people who would like to have kids not right now; or worse, for women who shouldn't be pregnant for personal or medical reasons.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Or a woman who's been raped, or several other scenarios.

Doesn't anyone get that it's morally wrong to deny someone needed medication? [sigh]