:: The S.I.C.L.E. Cell ::

:: Friday, December 21, 2007 ::

I've been having some health issues for over a year now that have ferried me to the knock-out table and positioned me under the knife and/or foot-long needles on more than one occasion. This week, after scraping me off the ceiling post-(particularly painful) procedure, I recouped at home in anticipation of what the neurologist would say today.

Would you believe that my doctor gave me all of my choices, explaining them in graphic detail, and listing all the pros and cons of each option? And at the conclusion of the appointment he even informed me that as my physician, he would not allow me to make a decision today. Despite the fact that in the past he has made all of these choices clear possibilities for my medical future and I have had time to ponder them, he would not allow me to choose today, because he wanted me to go home and give extra consideration to a choice that will carry consequences that affect the rest of my life.

This particular deliberation pertains to pain and surgical procedures--things not half as important as the choice whether or not to destroy one's own living, growing child.

Curiously my physician seemed unaffected by my gender, that is, he did not automatically defer to my choices without question based solely on my womanhood. Instead of treating me with superiority, he treated me equally--like any person, male or female, who has a big decision to make. And you know something? I am not offended. Are you? When you read this account, do your cheeks flush red and your heart rate increase? Or does it sound like good medicine? Do you, like me, believe that my doctor's handling of the situation was respectful, wise and not at all rocket science?

Yet if an abortionist told a woman to go home and think it over, to really consider all her options--heck, if he explained all the options and all the pros and cons of the options to the woman--if he explained the procedure itself using anatomical terms and not generalizations like "tissue," if he did all this--or if women were protected by a legal mandate for this level of care, it would somehow be unthinkable!

It seems that when it's a neurosurgeon doing the talking, he's a thorough, wonderful physician, but if an abortionist says the same things, or if he is required to say the same things, then he or his legislator is a paternalistic, woman-hating bastard.

I dare say Mr. Spock would have a problem with the logic.

:: ashli 9:56 PM # ::
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