Ronja wrote:Coito, I don't get what you're trying to say. What are e.g. the practical consequences for a doctor if they take your view? Will they be able to do something for the actual patient actually in the room with them right now, or will they have to consider and reconsider possibilities near endlessly, starting with not believing a word any patient says who appears young and wants an abortion?
You seem to be only questioning, but offering no practical solutions.
I don't know what the practical solution is.
I'm torn between not accepting that a doctor, or the State (noGod forbid... <shudder>) knows better than parents what they ought to do. To understanding that doctors do have expertise in these matters.
This is not a cut and dried issue in my mind. Medical decisions are to be between doctor and patient, but patients have parents and guardians for a reason - because they can't make decisions well for themselves. And, doctors are decision makers. Doctors give medical advice and make medical recommendations, and outline options, and the patient (with their parent or guardian) then decides courses of action and treatment.
I do not leave it to doctors to be the end of this discussion. Look at the other conversations we've had when some folks were outraged by doctors advising patients regarding abortions and daring to suggest alternatives, and daring to counsel a patient either against or about abortions. If the matter is between doctor and patient, then it is between doctor and patient, isn't it? Or, must doctors give their medical advice according to a certain orthodoxy that is most friendly to the decision to have an abortion?
You see - some doctors may be staunchly opposed to abortion. What if a child goes in and talks it over, and then "decides" not to get one? And, then she waits to tell her parents until she's too far along? What if a child goes in to a different doctor who is pro abortion, and the child expresses reticence to have an abortion but the doctor counsels her to get one? What if in both cases, the parents are left out of the decision?