Denominational Health

The involvement of the Catholic Church in the abortion issue raises the question of its influence in society as a whole. The extent of religious control of health services is particularly disturbing in view of an incident which took place in the US in 1950 but which is still relevant.

Dr John M. Stephens, of Brownsville, Texas, determined that a patient of his who had survived three close calif in childbirth could not survive another pregnancy after her fourth child. At the request of the patient, Mrs Theresa Gonzalez, and her husband, he tied her Fallopian tubes when her fourth child was born in the delivery room of the "Mercy" Roman Catholic Hospital of Brownsville. A nun, Mary Adele of the "Sisters of Mercy", who was in charge of the hospital's obstertrics department, physically interrupted Dr Stephens and compelled him to untie the tubes.

"Time" magazine (4.12.50) commented "Most of Brownsville townspeople backed Dr Stephens. So did fellow doctors, though none could raise his voice for fear that he, too, would find the doors of Mercy Hospital shut in his patients' faces. For violating its code of ethics (which it shares with other Roman Catholic hospitals in the US) Mercy Hospital denied Dr Stephens the use of its facilities for his patients ". "Mercy" Hospital was Brownsville's only hospital As a religious organisation the Catholic Church enjoys tax and rating privileges so its hospitals, indirectly, are subsidised by the taxpayer and the local community.

This incident illustrates one of the dangers of sectarian health services. Medicine should be free of the influence of religious extremists but in NZ it isn't.