Clipmarks | AtlLiberal's Health collection

Religion and Abortion

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:47:20 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: This article makes a cogent argument that religion actually promotes abortions rather than diminishes them. Link to full article for more info.

Clip Source: atheism.about.com

Abortions Highest Where Religion is Highest

Given how opposition to legal abortion is almost entirely based on religious dogma, one might think that areas where belief in religious dogma is highest will be areas where abortion is lowest. That, however, is incorrect - abortion rates are highest in places where religiosity is highest but lowest in more secular areas. This is not an incidental correlation: not only does it disprove the popular idea that secularism destroys the moral values which oppose abortion, but it points to how religion itself can make demand for abortion higher.

It's not secularism, secular ethics, or atheism which causes increases in abortion rates; instead, it's the heavy hand of puritanical, patriarchal religion in a society where women are gaining power, equality, and wealth. Regardless of how religious a society is or what the religion is, increasing affluence and increasing female equality leads to desires for lower families.

Tags: abortion, choice, health, women, religion

Religious Dogma Invades Healthcare

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:16:42 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: Cline makes a good point that professionals like doctors and pharmacists knowingly enter professions that could compromise their religious beliefs. What could be their justification for then using these religious beliefs to refuse services to certain individuals?

Clip Source: atheism.about.com

Doctors Refuse Pap Test to Unmarried Women, Cite Religious Beliefs

First they came to demand exemptions from abortions, and the government relented. The men in government didn't get abortions and didn't want to make an issue out of it. Then they came to demand exemptions from providing women with contraceptives, and the government relented again. Only unmarried sluts need contraceptives, right? Now doctors want exemptions from providing basic medical tests like pap smears.

Have we finally had enough? Can we finally call a halt to so-called medical "professionals" who are trying to undermine women's health care on the basis of ancient religious dogma? No one is conscripted into the ranks of pharmacists, physicians, or nurses, and those who voluntarily join these professions are not forced into the specialties where they might become involved with women who might annoyingly exercise reproductive autonomy.

Tags: religion, science, prejudice, bigotry, healthcare, dogma

More Religious Absurdity

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:39:02 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: I continue to be amazed at the lunacy of religious practices. Most are benign, mere oddities. But this clip points to serious consequences to other people because of possible serious infections being passed on by health care professionals. Hygiene is many times overlooked in hospitals ostensibly because of lack of time needed to properly wash hands. That, however, is a completely different matter that relates to budget financing and staffing. This clip points to another much more easily taken care of lapse in patient care. The question that should be raised is how much accommodation should be given to religion especially if that accommodation puts patients in jeopardy?

Clip Source: atheism.about.com

Female Muslim Medics: Hygiene Rules Violate Our Religion

Of all the attempts by religious believers to get exemptions from standard laws and regulations, those involving the health and safety of others — usually those not part of the same religious tradition — are the worst. It's bad enough if a person wants to risk their own health or life for the sake of religious superstition, but it's utterly deplorable that they would put anyone else at risk.

Even worse is when this comes from people who are ostensibly part of the "healing" profession — people who are supposed to be caring for the health and lives of others. Who is willing to take a chance on a nurse who refuses to follow standard hygienic rules because baring her forearms is "immodest" and therefore against her religion?

Tags: religion, islam, hygiene, health

All Top Candidates Back Insurance Companies

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:39:19 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: We need to take the health care of citizens out of the insurance company's hands. Free health care for all.

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

Murder by spreadsheet

Every presidential candidate whose health plan rewards the health insurance companies by giving them more business via mandates needs to rethink that approach.

The lawyer for California teen Nataline Sarkisyan charged today that the only reason Cigna Health Care officials changed their minds and approved a liver transplant for the desperate girl was they knew it was too late and they wouldn't have to pay for it.

Sarkisyan, 17, died Thursday just hours after Cigna reversed its decision and approved the procedure it had previously described as "too experimental…and unproven." Now the Sarkisyan family hopes manslaughter or murder charges will be pressed.

Their lawyer, Mark Geragos, says he will refer the case to prosecutors for possible criminal charges against the insurer, Cigna HealthCare.

Tags: health, insurance, politics

Get Your Coathangers Ready

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:56:36 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: Anyone who believes that this has nothing to do with banning abortion is a fool. The other troubling point is that it, as mentioned in the article, could also affect birth control. Welcome to 1950 folks. Once again religious ideology takes precedent over rational thought. Once again, emotional pleading trumps reasoned, rational discourse.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Colo. Petition Revives Anti-Abortion Bid

DENVER — A 20-year-old law student has become a cause celebre in the anti-abortion movement for her efforts to have the state Constitution define fertilized eggs as people _ a tactic spreading nationwide in bids to neutralize the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

Burton's so-called human life amendment doesn't mention abortion. She insists her only aim is to define when human life begins, and any discussion about abortion is up to lawmakers, she said.

Abortion rights groups say the measure would hamper in-vitro fertilization and stem cell research. They say it also could affect birth control because the most widely used form of contraception works by preventing fertilized eggs from attaching to the uterus.

Tags: abortion, religion

Prayer Won't Work

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:40:52 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: I don't care for Snow's politics or for the administration that he is the mouthpiece for. But the fact remains that I am saddened by the news of his reoccurring cancer. Any compassionate person would be. I know it seems over the top to be critical of others attempts at consolation by offering to pray for someone but the fact remains that it simply is useless. Better would be for Bush to have actually listened to reputable scientists and allowed funding for stem cell research instead of bending over for his right wing masters. And this doesn't even address the problems with health care in the US.

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Snow's colon cancer spreads to liver

WASHINGTON - Presidential spokesman Tony Snow's cancer has returned and spread to his liver and elsewhere in his body, shaken White House colleagues announced Tuesday. They said he told them he planned to fight the disease and return to work.

"He is not going to let this whip him, and he's upbeat," President Bush said of his press secretary. "And so my message to Tony is, 'Stay strong; a lot of people love you and care for you and will pray for you.'"

Tags: religion, science

Prayer and AIDS

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:33:08 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: This article is not too clear what the church's position on AIDS is. The above quote is typical of a supernatural belief system though.

Clip Source: www.naplesnews.com

Prayer and healing

Golden Gate church a beacon that’s shining a light on problem of AIDS

Prayer and healing

Golden Gate church a beacon that’s shining a light on problem of AIDS

By Jonathan Foerster (Contact)

Saturday, March 10, 2007

They know that 13 years ago her husband, Willie James Williams, was diagnosed with AIDS and died a year later, on May 21, 1995. They know that she didn’t contract the disease from him, and continues to test HIV-negative year after year.

They know she believes in God, and that’s the reason she wasn’t infected.

Tags: religion, aids, health

How to survive a heart attack when alone

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:09:42 GMT

clipped by: deusdiabolus
clipper's remarks: The linked article also has the procedure for standard CPR.

Clip Source: www.ifood.tv

HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, this article seemed in order.) Without help the person whose heart stops beating properly and who begins to feel Faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating.

The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a phone and, between breaths, call for help.

Tell as many other people as possible about this, it could save their lives!

from Health Cares, Rochester General Hospital via Chapter 240's newsletter AND THE BEAT GOES ON... (reprint from The Mended Hearts, Inc. publication, Heart Response)