[Rhodes22-list] Politics - Camel Nose Logic

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Philip,
 
Seems to me that if they don’t want to do it you shouldn’t lean on the  
doctors you've met with.  Their position that they don’t want to do it can  mean 
either they don’t want to do it, or that they think they’ll screw it  up.  You 
should not discount the latter possibility. 
 
You live in the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan area, you’ve got a  
tremendous number of choices and access to world class expertise.  Also,  you’ve got 
the military medical system which is significant.  You’ve got a  lot of 
options, I recommend you use ‘em.  Your wife is lucky, if she were  living in a 
small town 200 miles from nowhere with 1 part time doctor, and it  had to be done 
quickly, the doctor might have to do his/her best.  It's a  judgement call.  
 
But it's one thing, and in the very best medical tradition, for a physician  
to refuse to do a procedure if they think they are not competent to perform 
the  procedure or if they believe the patient would be at undue  medical risk, 
etc - it means the physician knows their limits of  competence, or your 
probable prognosis,  and they are providing a service  by saying no.  It's quite 
another thing when the physician says "I had  a vision, you need or deserve this 
affliction so I'm not going to help  you".   From my perspective, the latter 
case is unacceptable.  If  your wife were the lady living 200 miles from nowhere 
and you suffered harm from  that decision, I think she should have legal 
recourse.
 
Dave