For example, I’m a teacher. I’ve taught 13 years. So far nothing I teach the kids at sixth grade is something I object to. But the minute I’m told to teach homosexuality or gay history as some are trying to get passed, I’ll have to change careers. Having another teacher do it “for me” and teach my kids about the gay lifestyle means they’re still going to get taught it!! The point isn’t “who” is teaching them gay is ok, the point is they are being taught that! So I’d want out of the whole thing!?
I am also a teacher, although now I wear more hats in education, and teach less than I consult. I think you brought up a good parallel, and one I have also brought up on similar threads…because I think that there’s a point of no return here. There’s an entire ethic that is represented in secular hospitals in this country. That ethic is substantially different, in certain critical ways, than is reflected in Catholic morality, which in turn is what dominates Catholic hospitals. Bishop Olmstead made that clear in his press conference on the Phoenix event – a press conference which was linked in one of the CAF threads which discussed that event some time ago.
Gurney, I have taught in schools which “celebrate,” educationally and in practical ways, homosexuality. Luckily, I was not personally asked to ‘present Gay history,’ but I came close to having to accompany a class on the infamous field trip which was publicized nationwide, and once I got to that proximate position, I knew it was time to bow out of direct teaching in the public schools. (I actually teach K-12, but I won’t sign any public school contract now in my State, except for select positions which I know ahead of time will not require such teaching. Thus, for me that would really mean single-subject assignments in which I was told the curriculum ahead of time, or given freedom to create my own curriculum.) If I accept a position in administration or in teaching, generally it is only in private schools.
And I agree with your comment about “having another teacher do it for you.” To me, this is just a rationalization. I would still be participating in the amoral mission of the school, by being on its staff. It’s way too hard to slice-and-dice one’s participation in such institutions. And since medical personnel have so many different situations they are encountering than a teacher in a classroom, I don’t know how one contorts oneself into a pretzel on a daily basis without getting an ulcer, not to mention getting fired. Certainly that would be true in the Ob-Gyn specialty, but clearly it could be true in Gerontology with regard to life issues, and in Oncology with regard to life issues (terminal illness).
I don’t know what the practice is in secular hospitals with regard to disclosure. It seems to me that the hospital’s overall policies should be published in plain view, and where that needs refinement, each specialty should provide that also, as a statement of practices, for admitting patients to review. No medical professional working there should then be surprised at what transpires in that hospital. Naturally, when it comes to terminal illness, any patient should review ahead of time with the hospital and loved ones, what his or her wishes are, and the more those wishes conflict with the usual policy at such hospitals, the more urgent it is for that patient to communicate such wishes.
There’s another option, of course: that option is to decide that you will use your career as an opportunity to be an activist, opposing that institution’s practices. I suppose that could be a way to spend your life if you enjoy daily activism. For me, I would rather spend my life contributing constructively than being in perpetual opposition to my employer.
I don’t know about where you work, but if there is a policy that dictates a time limit to starting a doctor’s order, I hope she gets proper disciplinary action for doing what she did. I’d keep my eye on her for your patients’ sake, they will need their advocate some day.