…to child of mother with tattoos. The story is here. And there is much discussion about it on the internets.
Dr. Gary Merrill, of Christian Medical Services, in Bakersfield, CA, is in private practice and has limits on who he will treat. Amongst the exclusionary criteria are presence of tattoos or body piercings.
I think that it is hardly a Christian principle to deny medical care to children because of the lifestyle choices of their parents. As a Catholic, I’m offended by the use of Christianity to justify this decision. As a pediatrician, I’m disgusted by any rationalizations for the denial of services to the most medically underserved portion of our population. As an earring-wearer, I’m offended by the thought process that leads to an assumption that I am a tool of the devil.
Yet his practice is not an emergency room and is not subject to EMTALA as a matter of routine obligations. His practice is a private practice, and unless he had a prior existing relationship with this patient, I think he is probably within his legal rights to make this decision.
And as much as I disagree with him, as much as I would never take my kids there for care, I defend his right to run his practice in whatever misguided fashion he desires.
I guess he gets my most recent nomination for Moron of the Week.
I don’t consider him a Christian if he would deny medical treatment to a child because he has a problem with a tatoo.
Nor do I, which is why I included the quotation marks around the term in the title. Heavy sarcasm was intended. There is nothing Christ-like about denying medical treatment based on the presence of tattoos or piercings. I don’t even have to go back to the Bible and double-check that one.
Maybe if he read some of the red words in the Bible then he would understand that Jesus spoke to the unwashed. He went out of his way to talk to and to convert those that have lost their way. So, even if child with tatoos and piercings were the scub of the earth (which they are not) Jesus would embrace them.
The Bible teaches us to judge not, yet this guy judges. This Doc doesn’t understand the Bible, Jesus or his teachings. This is basis Bible 101.
BTW, you make and excellent point that you support his misguided thoughts to practice the way that he wants to practice. If the shoe were on the other foot. If this Republican (I’m guessing) stick in the mud were looking at your practice habits, he would try to restrict your rights.
And what’s worse, in regards to comment 3 above, in case I didn’t really make it clear in my post, is that it wasn’t even the kid that had the tattoo. It was the mother of the kid. The kid was excluded by association, I guess.
There seems more to this story. Another patient in the story stated that the Doc never said anything about her tatoo. Is it possible that the woman had something offensive tatooed?
This is so much crap. I wish people would stop judgeing other people only God can judge. And we are forgiven!
Stacey