Court rules in favor of USCCB, against ACLU in medical case

  • Thread starter Thread starter _Abyssinia
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

_Abyssinia

Guest
A federal district court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Click to expand...
The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of Tamesha Means, a woman who miscarried her child after a Michigan Catholic hospital “did not tell Tamesha that terminating her pregnancy was an option and the safest course for her condition.” The ACLU alleged that the bishops’ health care directives “prohibited that hospital from complying with the applicable standard of care in this case.”
Click to expand...
“The Court must defer to religious institutions in their articulation of church doctrine and policy,” according to the ruling. “However, the Court’s consideration of the legal duty of a physician to provide adequate medical care is not a matter of church doctrine. Plaintiff has a right to remedy in a secular court for medical malpractice without needing to resolve doctrinal matters.”
Click to expand...
catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=25436&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
 
“The Court must defer to religious institutions in their articulation of church doctrine and policy,” according to the ruling. “However, the Court’s consideration of the legal duty of a physician to provide adequate medical care is not a matter of church doctrine. Plaintiff has a right to remedy in a secular court for medical malpractice without needing to resolve doctrinal matters.”

I guess the court considers doctrine okay until somebody practices it.
 
If I understand correctly, the court ruled that the ACLU can’t sue the USCCB, but the woman can sue her doctor/hospital. Yes?
 
The ACLU might have well just said, “We are filing a lawsuit against this Catholic Hospital because they refused to murder the woman’s child”.
God forgive and renew America!
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Ora Pro Nobis!
 
on_the_hill said:
If I understand correctly, the court ruled that the ACLU can’t sue the USCCB, but the woman can sue her doctor/hospital. Yes?
Click to expand...
The ACLU can’t sue the bishops, but the patient can sue the Catholic hospital. This will probably come down to doctors on both sides claiming what course of action was best for the patient.
 
Polycarp1 said:
“The Court must defer to religious institutions in their articulation of church doctrine and policy,” according to the ruling. “However, the Court’s consideration of the legal duty of a physician to provide adequate medical care is not a matter of church doctrine. Plaintiff has a right to remedy in a secular court for medical malpractice without needing to resolve doctrinal matters.”

I guess the court considers doctrine okay until somebody practices it.
Click to expand...
Eventually, adequate medical care will be defined to include euthanasia.
 
on_the_hill said:
If I understand correctly, the court ruled that the ACLU can’t sue the USCCB, but the woman can sue her doctor/hospital. Yes?
Click to expand...
No. The woman was always the one named in the law suit, the one doing the suing, the ACLU is the legal organization providing the lawyers and funding.

But I don’t understand what the court said. It seemed to be contradicting itself. The church can dictate doctrine, but health care isn’t doctrine, but case dismissed anyway. I’m getting whiplash.

The case is confusing to me, what are her damages? She supposedly lost the option to actively abort a baby that was naturally aborted (miscarried.) Seems they want every type of pregnancy with this difficulty to be always counseled that abortion is an option. Obviously a case searched out for the purpose of trying to make a Catholic hospital counsel for abortion.

Anyway, hooray for the bishops on this round. But it’s not over yet. It’s important that we donate to Catholic legal defense agencies. It’s our future.
 
incense said:
But I don’t understand what the court said. It seemed to be contradicting itself. The church can dictate doctrine, but health care isn’t doctrine, but case dismissed anyway. I’m getting whiplash.
Click to expand...
It means the court said it cannot interfere in the religious freedom of religious institutions to “articulate church doctrine and policy”. So the suit against the USCCB was dismissed.

But the court further said the physician (not the bishops) nevertheless had a legal duty “to provide adequate medical care”. The court did not rule on this separate issue (the physician was not a defendant in the suit) but said the plaintiff has the right to sue the physician in civil court for medical malpractice (which was always the case anyway). Whether or not the physician failed to provide adequate medical care would be decided by the civil court.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top