• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Thursday, April 22, 2021
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

The Hippocratic Oath Stops at the Arkansas Border

Edward C. Halperin by Edward C. Halperin
04/08/21
in Opinion
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson delivers a speech, 2016

File photo: Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson delivers a speech, 2016. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Last week the overwhelmingly Republican Arkansas legislature passed The Medical Ethics and Diversity Act, which Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson subsequently signed into law.

Invoking “the right of conscience” and “the Hippocratic Oath” this new law permits doctors, pharmacists, hospitals and health insurance companies to refuse to provide or pay for non-emergency care if they feel their “religious, moral, or ethical principles” would be violated.

However, no definition is provided in the law as to what these “principles” can or cannot be.

Since throughout US history some Americans have asserted that their “religious, moral, or ethical principles” justify slavery, subjugation of women, white supremacy, or lynching, the lack of any definitions in the law make it absurdly vague.

Henceforth, in Arkansas, refusing to care for a patient because of one’s “principles” will not be punishable, by loss of hospital “staff privileges,” “refusal of board certification,” “refusal to award any grant,” or “refusal to provide residency training.”

I am a physician who has practiced cancer medicine for over 40 years and a medical school professor who teaches medical ethics and medical history. This law is a rare combination of ignorance of medical history, flagrant disregard of medical ethics, bigotry, and buffoonery.

Refusing Care Because of ‘Religious, Moral or Ethical Principles‘

While it is highly likely that the authors of this bill envisioned it as an anti-abortion measure, under the law a doctor can:

  • Refuse to treat a patient with cancer of the oral cavity because the doctor’s “principles” view the patient’s past history of cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption, behaviors which typically cause this type of cancer, as “immoral”
  • Refuse to treat a patient who has never been married with cancer of the cervix because the doctor’s “principles” view viral transmission during sexual intercourse, a behavior which typically causes this type of cancer, as a “breach of religious principles”
  • Refuse to treat a homosexual or transgender patient with diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, or any other non-emergency condition because they view the patient as “immoral”
  • Refuse to treat an alcoholic because they view alcoholism as a “moral failing” rather than a disease

This would be the first bill of its kind to pass in any state, ever.

It will completely bar gender-affirming health care for trans youth and bar public insurance coverage for trans people of ANY AGE.

Yes, you read that right.

— ACLU (@ACLU) March 25, 2021

Under the law a hospital can assert that its “religious, moral, or ethical principles” allow it to: 

  • Refuse prenatal care to an unmarried woman “because pregnancy outside of marriage is immoral”
  • Refuse routine pediatric preventive care to a child born out of wedlock because the child is “the product of sin”

Under the law a pharmacist can:

  • Refuse to fill any prescription if they judge that it violates their self-determined “religious, moral or ethical principles.”

Additional examples of individuals who might be refused care because of this law is endless. 

Medical History

On top of the unethical audacity of the law, it is wrong about medical history. The law invokes the Hippocratic Oath but fails to recognize that the Oath requires doctors to “benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them…into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain for all intentional wrongdoing and harm…”

Refusal to provide care to those in need of that care is an egregious breach of the Oath.

Medics and hospital workers tend to a COVID-19 patient outside the Montefiore Medical Center Moses Campus in the Bronx, New York City.
Medics and hospital workers tend to a COVID-19 patient outside the Montefiore Medical Center Moses Campus in the Bronx, New York City. Photo: John Moore/AFP

Regarding the law’s buffoonery: Arkansas does not have the power to determine who is or who is not board certified in a medical specialty. This authority resides in national medical specialty boards. The state does not have the power to tell the public and private agencies that control biomedical research grants how to judge the ethical conduct of physicians participating in research.

Were I to find myself on a committee judging applications for medical research funding for cancer, I would vote against funding any doctor or hospital who refused to care for cancer patients because the doctor or hospital decided they didn’t like the patient’s choice of who to love, who to marry, or the patient’s past choices about smoking or drinking.

Treating the Sick

Finally, it is obvious to anyone involved in graduate medical education that Arkansas does not have the power to decide what is and what is not an accredited medical residency program. The role of a doctor is to treat the sick, not judge the sick as being worthy or not worthy of treatment because of the doctor’s view of whether the patient and their disease falls within or outside the doctor’s undefined “religious, ethical and moral principles.”

I do not know why the authors of the Arkansas law included the word “diversity” in the title. It is, however, an apt choice. Diversity is a noun meaning the condition of having a great deal of variety. There is, indeed, a great deal of variety in this Arkansas law. It contains a variety of legally unenforceable immoral, unethical, and ahistorical points-of-view; all of which are antithetical to the practice of medicine.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
ShareTweet
Edward C. Halperin

Edward C. Halperin

Teaches history of medicine at New York Medical College in Valhalla NY where he serves as the college’s Chancellor and CEO. This editorial represents his personal opinion and not that of the college.

Related Posts

Protestor holding a sign for Adam Toledo
Opinion

Hey Mr. Policeman, Stop Killing Our Kids

by Stephen J. Lyons
April 21, 2021
A candlelight vigil in Garden Grove, California, after the shooting that left eight people dead in Atlanta, including six Asian women
Featured

American Nightmare: The Asian-American Experience

by Albert Kim
April 17, 2021
President Biden speaks about the Colorado shootings at the White House.
Opinion

US Gun Violence: Biden, You Need to Do Something. Now

by Stephen J. Lyons
March 26, 2021
COVID Stimulus Checks: Does Victory Include Abandoning the Most Vulnerable?
Opinion

COVID Stimulus Checks: Does Victory Include Abandoning the Most Vulnerable?

by Thespina Yamanis
March 25, 2021
Jake Angeli speaks to a US Capitol Police officer.
Opinion

Attempted US Capitol Coup a Security and Existential Crisis

by Ryan Skinnell
March 3, 2021
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) meets with Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in Khartoum, last August
Opinion

Sudan’s Normalization With Israel Is a Win for Everyone

by Jon Davis and Erielle Davidson
February 26, 2021
Next Post
Palestine war, Gaza

Israel Refuses to Work With ICC on War Crimes Probe, Says 'No Authority'

greta thunberg

Greta Thunberg to Skip COP26 Over Unfair Vaccine Rollouts

Recommended

Bao Choy

Hong Kong Journalist Convicted Over Public Database Searches

April 22, 2021
Derek Chauvin

Ex-Policeman Derek Chauvin Found Guilty of George Floyd’s Murder

April 21, 2021
Protestor holding a sign for Adam Toledo

Hey Mr. Policeman, Stop Killing Our Kids

April 21, 2021
Alexey Navalny turned his February 2 hearing into a blistering attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny’s Doctors Denied Access as Kremlin Foe Is ‘Very Weak’

April 20, 2021
The UN chemical weapons watchdog could impose sanctions on Syria this week.

Syria Faces Sanctions at Chemical Weapons Watchdog

April 20, 2021
António Guterres

World Running Out of Time to Tackle Climate Crisis: UN

April 19, 2021

Opinion

Protestor holding a sign for Adam Toledo

Hey Mr. Policeman, Stop Killing Our Kids

April 21, 2021
A candlelight vigil in Garden Grove, California, after the shooting that left eight people dead in Atlanta, including six Asian women

American Nightmare: The Asian-American Experience

April 17, 2021
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson delivers a speech, 2016

The Hippocratic Oath Stops at the Arkansas Border

April 8, 2021
Erdogan Threatens to Open Europe Gates for Refugees

Turkey’s Latest Crackdown Spells Dangerous New Normal for Human Rights Defenders

March 29, 2021
President Biden speaks about the Colorado shootings at the White House.

US Gun Violence: Biden, You Need to Do Something. Now

March 26, 2021
COVID Stimulus Checks: Does Victory Include Abandoning the Most Vulnerable?

COVID Stimulus Checks: Does Victory Include Abandoning the Most Vulnerable?

March 25, 2021
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post