Posted on 01/05/2008 10:01:16 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
"God made you a man." That's what Charlene Hastings said she was told when she called to inquire about breast enlargement surgery at Seton Medical Center, a Catholic hospital in Daly City. Now the San Franciscan is suing the hospital, claiming officials there discriminated against her because she had a sex-change operation.
Hastings, 57, had already had the major surgery she needed to become a woman. She had chosen a San Francisco plastic surgeon with privileges at Seton to perform the breast augmentation in October 2006. But the surgeon, Dr. Leonard Gray, told her that Seton no longer allowed him to operate on transgender patients, Hastings said. "It's a blatant case of discrimination."
The lawsuit pits the rights of transgendered people against the hospital's rights to operate according to its religious principles.
State law allows religiously affiliated hospitals to refuse to provide abortions, but there is no specific religious exemption allowing hospitals to deny elective surgery to transgender people. Seton is a member of the Daughters of Charity Health System, which operates five Catholic hospitals in California.
"Seton Medical Center provides medically necessary services to all individuals," Nikels said in a prepared statement. "However, the hospital does not perform surgical procedures contrary to Catholic teaching; for example, abortion, direct euthanasia, transgender surgery or any of its related components." The hospital did not comment directly on the lawsuit.
Wertz thinks Seton's policy violates the Unruh Act, a state law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender, gender identity or sexual orientation. "There's simply no religious exemption in the Unruh Act," Wertz said.
"This is a civil rights story," he said. "It is about transgender people being able to use businesses and other facilities on an equal basis as other people. If you took out 'transgender' in the lawsuit
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
There's a pic of "Charlene" in the paper today, but it's not online. Probably a good thing, too. If you haven't hurled after reading the story, the pic would have certainly sent you over the top.
The lawsuit was filed Dec. 21 in San Francisco Superior Court. How do you suppose it will turn out? [purely rhetorical question]
Why is it that it’s the ‘you can’t legislate morality’ liberals who are always trying to use the law to force their values on others? [Rhetorical question]
Radical cutitoffomy, to be precise.
I've been waiting for this type of slippery slope with the words again. The same thing that invented words like "Undocumented immigrant."
Trangenderism has nothing to do with this. The item in question is a transsexual.
That's what Charlene Hastings said she was told when she called to inquire about breast enlargement surgery at Seton Medical Center, a Catholic hospital in Daly City.
Cut or not, you are still a dude. And you do not pass. - Sorry.
As opposed to the opposite procedure, addadictomy.
The hospital should simply revoke Dr. Gray’s practicing/affiliation rights. He should no better than even attempt to perform this type of butchery at a Catholic Hospital.
cutitoffomy Priceless!
It doesn’t matter what these misguided souls do, at the end of their lives they still have the original DNA that they were born with. It would probably be a whole lot better if they tried therapy to accept their birth gender.
Then that law is abhorrent to the Constitution and should be struck down.
RomneyCare.
Satan's battle against the bride of Christ is in full force both from without, and more dangerously, from within. The pressure on the saints to conform to the world increases every day with the force of the state being advanced incrementally to accomplish this. Our communities have been infiltrated with wolves in sheep's clothing preaching a worldly Gospel, "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power." We are seeing the chaff blown away and those of true faith must remain strong and steadfast.
I think this has less to do with getting the operation than it has to do with forcing another institution to bow to the perverted desires of a slim sub-set of society.
Without a doubt. He could easily have sought his operation at another hospital more obliging to his aberrant group.
Exactly. Why should a hospital be forced to perform surgery it doesn't think necessary anyway? What if someone wanted a breast implant on the top of his head? Should the surgeon be forced to do that?
How about the other argument used....
“well, my genes make me a homosexual, and you can’t change
that...but if my genes make me feel like a women ,
well I have to change that...” bunch o’hypocritical sophists.
The best argument is this,IMHO,...since the person who wants
the sex change operation usually tells the doc that they
(the patient) feels like a member of the opposite sex already,
than it is apparent that their physical structure does not
effect how they perceive themselves. Therefore changing their organs
will not effect them. So, therefore it is an elective
cosmetic surgery(fill in the word mutilation, for accuracy)
How about:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ...."
I'm certain that there is another hospital in San Fagcisco where the doctor can do his little nip/tuck.
If the hospital is a private one is it still liable?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.