State court says medical decisions, religion shouldn't mix
"The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that doctors can't use their religious beliefs to deny treatment to same-sex couples because doing so violates the state's anti-discrimination laws.
The unanimous decision came in the case of an Oceanside lesbian couple who are suing two doctors at a North County clinic. They claim the doctors would not perform a certain artificial insemination procedure because their strong Christian beliefs prevented them from impregnating a lesbian couple.
The closely watched case pitted religious freedom rights guaranteed in the constitution against California's strong anti-discrimination laws, which bar businesses from discriminating against customers and clients based on certain characteristics such as race, gender, age and sexual orientation.
Guadalupe Benitez, 36, sued the Vista-based North Coast Women's Care Clinic in August 2001 after a fruitless months-long effort to become pregnant . A doctor from a different practice eventually treated Benitez and she became pregnant, giving birth to her son, Gabriel. She has also since given birth to twin girls.
At a news conference Monday, Benitez said she was overwhelmed with the decision.
“I'm just so happy and so glad,” she said as her domestic partner, Joanne Clark, and Gabriel stood next to her. “It's been a long time coming.”
One of her lawyers, Jennifer Pizer of the same-sex legal rights group Lambda Legal, said the court clearly announced that “discrimination has no place in the doctor's office.”
It is also the second major win for same-sex civil rights groups at the state's high court in the past three months.
In a historic decision in May, the justices struck down state laws prohibiting same sex couples from being legally married. That controversial decision is now the subject of a proposition on the November ballot that would overturn the ruling if it is passed by voters.
The ruling today sends the case back to Superior Court in San Diego for a trial. The issue arose as the case was heading for a trial in 2003."
Are there any circumstances where religion and medicine should mix?
The unanimous decision came in the case of an Oceanside lesbian couple who are suing two doctors at a North County clinic. They claim the doctors would not perform a certain artificial insemination procedure because their strong Christian beliefs prevented them from impregnating a lesbian couple.
The closely watched case pitted religious freedom rights guaranteed in the constitution against California's strong anti-discrimination laws, which bar businesses from discriminating against customers and clients based on certain characteristics such as race, gender, age and sexual orientation.
Guadalupe Benitez, 36, sued the Vista-based North Coast Women's Care Clinic in August 2001 after a fruitless months-long effort to become pregnant . A doctor from a different practice eventually treated Benitez and she became pregnant, giving birth to her son, Gabriel. She has also since given birth to twin girls.
At a news conference Monday, Benitez said she was overwhelmed with the decision.
“I'm just so happy and so glad,” she said as her domestic partner, Joanne Clark, and Gabriel stood next to her. “It's been a long time coming.”
One of her lawyers, Jennifer Pizer of the same-sex legal rights group Lambda Legal, said the court clearly announced that “discrimination has no place in the doctor's office.”
It is also the second major win for same-sex civil rights groups at the state's high court in the past three months.
In a historic decision in May, the justices struck down state laws prohibiting same sex couples from being legally married. That controversial decision is now the subject of a proposition on the November ballot that would overturn the ruling if it is passed by voters.
The ruling today sends the case back to Superior Court in San Diego for a trial. The issue arose as the case was heading for a trial in 2003."
Are there any circumstances where religion and medicine should mix?
- added August 20, 2008
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