California Supreme Court: Doctors May Not Discriminate on the Basis of Sexual Orientation
Tuesday August 19, 2008
In 2004, a group of fertility doctors refused to treat a lesbian on the basis that their religious beliefs prohibit them from helping lesbians reproduce. Yesterday, the California Supreme Court unanimously held that they violated state antidiscrimination laws:
Related: History of the Gay Rights Movement
The woman, Guadalupe Benitez, successfully filed suit against the doctors and their medical group in 2004 on the basis that their refusal to treat her violated California's anti-discrimination laws. However an appeal court in San Diego ruled against Benitez, a decision that led to the supreme court ruling.In an unanimous decision the justices ruled that Benitez was entitled to be treated like other patients with the same condition, and that constitutional protections for religious liberty do not excuse unlawful discrimination.The fact that the San Diego appeals court actually held that religious liberty does excuse unlawful discrimination is a little troubling. Would a emergency room physician who holds a white supremacist theology, and believes that non-whites do not deserve to live, be entitled to walk off on patients of color at random on the basis that his religious liberty trumps their right to treatment? If we don't draw the line at medical treatment, where do we draw the line?
Related: History of the Gay Rights Movement


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