When it comes to your health, whose beliefs should matter most–yours or theirs?

When my mother was diagnosed with cancer more than a decade ago, she didn’t get the diagnosis on a routine visit, or after the doctors performed tests because she wasn’t feeling quite herself. She got the diagnosis because she was deathly ill. Her undiagnosed cancer had caused a host of other problems that could have lead to kidney failure and death.

When she was in the hospital, they had a medication that could intervene, that could stop the problems causing her kidneys to fail. Only, the doctors refused to give it to her. That’s right. The medication that could save her life was refused to her. You might be wondering why. Because it was a Catholic hospital. A hospital that did not believe in abortion. A hospital that did not believe in giving treatments that would terminate a pregnancy. A hospital that gave a menopausal woman a pregnancy test that incorrectly came back positive.

My mother is alive and well and, like I said, it’s been more than a decade since this happened. But the memory came back to me the other day when I ran across this press release, Few Consider Religious Affiliation of Their Hospital, Don’t Want Religious Restrictions on Healthcare. Prior to my mother’s illness, I hadn’t really considered a hospital’s religious affiliation. It didn’t seem it mattered.

Only as my father called me the night and explained the horror of the day, that it occurred to me that the hospital’s beliefs can matter. Immensely. Luckily, my father is a man who is good in a crisis. He called his cousin, an obstetrician, who reviewed my mother’s chart quickly, and explained to the doctors at this hospital what likely caused the false positive and convinced them to begin treatment. I was fortunate enough only to get seconds of anguish and outrage on their behalf after the fact. I did not have to endure the ridiculousness of a doctor telling me he cared more about a phantom baby than my wife of nearly 30 years [at the time]. The fact that my father had a cool head and persevered to make sure his wife was done right, was not the point. The fact that he had to endure such nonsense in the first place is what appalled me. That the fact that he told the doctor that he wanted his wife treated mattered nothing to the doctor.

The research mentioned noted that most people don’t think about a hospital’s religious affiliation. And, living in America, it’s clear to see why people wouldn’t. The country was founded on the principle of religious freedom. Your religion shouldn’t matter to me. You have a right to practice it and go on your merry way, as I have a right to practice mine. Yet, when your practice interferes with my healthcare decisions…we have problems.

So, who should get the say? I advocate wholly for the patient, within the law. However, there are a spate of practices–such as doctors refusing to do procedures over their religious objections–which can cause harm. If the doctor is one of dozens on duty, it doesn’t matter. If the doctor is the only one in a large rural area, then that doctor’s choices are denying patients the care they want and are entitled to under the law, but that the doctor simply refuses to give. Interestingly, if a doctor’s religion was the KKK, they would still not be able to refuse to care for minorities. (The flip side of that is, minorities should not want that doctor’s care, for it will likely be subpar.)

Medical professionals, their governing boards, and legislators alike struggle with the issue of who’s choices should matter most. Is what the patient wants what matters or what the doctor wants? We struggle with this over matters of people refusing medical care–wanting to die instead of take treatment. There are doctors who refuse to give treatments that would kill a fetus. There are those who would not want to reduce care that was keeping you alive. There are parents that want doctors to continue treating their children when doctors say there is nothing left for them to do.

It is all complex and at times heart-rending. I tend to fall on the side of patient rights, on doing what the patient wants, even if it is not the doctor’s natural or religious inclination. Though, if what a patient wants is illegal or immoral, what then?

As the world changes, becomes more polarized, these questions will need answering. More rights will need to be spelled out so people can understand what they should expect and what is reasonable, and no the limits of what will they can impose on others and vice versa.

What has been your experience with religious hospitals?