Texas introduces lie-to-patient bill.

[Valjean]

Saw this in the paper, today. Apparently another roundabout mechanism to prevent abortions.
Texas Lawmakers Advance Bill That Would Allow Doctors to Lie to Pregnant Women

This morning, the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs unanimously passed a bill on to the full Senate that would let the government decide what a pregnant woman deserves to know about the health of her unborn child.

Committee members, it appears, believe it should be up to the doctor to decide if a pregnant woman should know she's carrying a fetus with severe disabilities — especially if the doctor suspects she'll have an abortion if she finds out. If passed, the law would make it impossible for Texans to sue a doctor for intentionally withholding this kind of information about a fetus' health.

This has worrisome implications.
Opinions?

 

[Revoltingest]

If accurately presented, the bill sounds horrible.

 

[lovesong]

This has to be violating some kind of right, doesn't it? There is no way that this can be understood as an ethical or legal thing to do. It's inhumane, it's denying her the right medical information that directly affects her, and it prevents a woman from being able to prepare mentally and financially for a child with special needs. It feels almost like coercion or blackmail, how can we possibly stand to live in a world where our medical professionals outright lie to us like this?

 

[icehorse]

argh!!

 

[dust1n]

Saw this in the paper, today. Apparently another roundabout mechanism to prevent abortions.
Texas Lawmakers Advance Bill That Would Allow Doctors to Lie to Pregnant Women

This has worrisome implications.
Opinions?

That sounds about right. I'm surprised it's not already illegal for a doctor a lie or misrepresent a fact about a patient's care to their patient...

Oh the bright side, this came out of one of the many committees that rights bill for consideration in the Senate of TX. And one of the committees that sets the agenda for the state legislature is the Committee on Calendars, which is currently run by a Democrat, so it is not likely that the bill will even make it to the floor, let alone pass, or not get filibustered, or ultimately, lose in court.

 

[dust1n]

This has to be violating some kind of right, doesn't it? There is no way that this can be understood as an ethical or legal thing to do. It's inhumane, it's denying her the right medical information that directly affects her, and it prevents a woman from being able to prepare mentally and financially for a child with special needs. It feels almost like coercion or blackmail, how can we possibly stand to live in a world where our medical professionals outright lie to us like this?

Not to mention there are treatments for certain conditions that normally result in stillbirths now-a-days, so really, keeping a condition like that from a patient would actually have an inverse affect for a lot of women.

 

[idav]

Opinions?

I doubt something like that would pass but just the fact that they are considering it makes me think the lawmakers condoning such a thing have lost their minds.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

I wonder what the medical profession--say, the American Medical Association--has to say about proposals such as this.

I also wonder how many lawsuits would result when patients request access to their records only to discover that their physician withheld important information, or provided incorrect information, in order to prevent an abortion...

 

[Brickjectivity]

Hey, if I was anti-abortion I'd do the same thing, and so would you. Sometimes lying is legal. Everybody knows that.

 

[SomeRandom]

Hey, if I was anti-abortion I'd do the same thing, and so would you. Sometimes lying is legal. Everybody knows that.

But is it ethical? Surely this goes against the Hippocratic oath in some form or another.

 

[Revoltingest]

But is it ethical? Surely this goes against the Hippocratic oath in some form or another.

It would depend upon whether the doc considers the fetus to be the patient.

 

[Brickjectivity]

But is it ethical? Surely this goes against the Hippocratic oath in some form or another.

The anti-abortion position is typically that abortion is murder. I see it on bumper stickers and hear it from relatives. That's the position, so lying is not going to be an obstacle.

I do not mean any disrespect to the OP. I feel the extremity of the ant-abortion position is predictable. We are talking about a movement that pickets abortion clinics and votes for almost anyone (no make that anyone absolutely) who says that they are 'Pro life'. It doesn't even matter what their actual position is.

 

[Father Heathen]

Wouldn't that violate the Hippocratic Oath itself? Clearly it would be unethical to deceive, manipulate, and betray the trust of patients just to bolster some twisted political scheme.

 

[Valjean]

Wouldn't that violate the Hippocratic Oath itself? Clearly it would be unethical to deceive, manipulate, and betray the trust of patients just to bolster some twisted political scheme.

Nobody's required to take any Hippocratic Oath, though a modern (1964) reworking of it is sometimes recited ceremoniously.
The oath's not a legal thing, just a historical curiosity -- and an unworkable one, at that. I also doubt it would be very popular with Christians, as it's an Oath by Opollo and several other Gods.

 

[Jumi]

That's completely evil of course.

 

[lovesong]

Regardless of a doctor's position on abortion, denying a woman the right to know about her baby's development is unjustifiable. Firstly, it is impossible to know for certain if the woman would get an abortion because of a condition that her baby might end up with, so the doctor is then having to make a judgement about the woman and her personality when deciding whether or not to give her medical information. Allowing doctors to use judgements about a patient's beliefs and system of ethics as a basis for medical service seems to be opening the doors to a slope so slippery I don't even want to think about it. Secondly, if the woman would not have chosen to have an abortion, but the doctor denied her the information anyway, it robs her of the chance she may seriously need to prepare for a child with special needs. She may want to save money to give the child extra care, or she may want to to do research about the disorder and prepare emotionally for the situation. It seems cruel at best to deny a future mother the chance to prepare to take care of her baby properly when the opportunity was there.

 

[SomeRandom]

The anti-abortion position is typically that abortion is murder. I see it on bumper stickers and hear it from relatives. That's the position, so lying is not going to be an obstacle.

I do not mean any disrespect to the OP. I feel the extremity of the ant-abortion position is predictable. We are talking about a movement that pickets abortion clinics and votes for almost anyone (no make that anyone absolutely) who says that they are 'Pro life'. It doesn't even matter what their actual position is.

I guess you're right. But what if said lies cause the death of the fetus? Would that also be murder?

 

[SomeRandom]

It would depend upon whether the doc considers the fetus to be the patient.

Even if they do, withholding such information does not benefit the fetus' future. It may harm it so either way it would against the oath.

 

[The Emperor of Mankind]

I guess you're right. But what if said lies cause the death of the fetus? Would that also be murder?

More importantly, what if the lies led to the death of the mother because her decision to continue with the pregnancy based on the lack of information given to her caused her to develop fatal conditions? Could the doctor(s) who lied to her be held responsible for her death?

 

[Augustus]

Is this their entry in the annual fundamentalist competition for laws which are both cruel and unbelievably stupid?

Aside from preventing abortions, they need to consider that it will result in a situation where many people will be unable to truly trust their doctor (unless they have a solid personal relationship).

When you ask if everything is ok with the baby how can you be reassured when the doc says "everything's fine" if you know doctors are legally allowed to lie to you?

Think of all of the extra stress this will cause to thousands of pregnant women which is bad for the baby and morally abhorrent.