[S-99]

Doctors say no all the time to patients wanting certain stuff done that they shouldn't have.

[General Battuta]

I'm not the person you have to convince. I'm not even arguing a point. I'm postulating reasons he might not have done it.

You don't have to convince me of anything. I'm throwing ideas out there.

[Dilmah G]

One question I have to ask. If she's so poor how the hell did she afford IVF in the first place?

That's a good question

I'm going to take a guess that she contributed to the current economic status by taking out a loan that she obviously couldn't pay back.

[Mars]

To be fair: we don't know that. Although I think it was irresponsible of her, and her doctor, it could (very) theoretically have been a complete mistake.

[Darius]

It may be that he could be sued, or at the very least violate his own oaths or otherwise be held responsible, if he didn't provide a service.

True, though it's a bit of a messy issue. Legally and ethically the doctor can't dictate what's going to be in the patient's best interest. It's ultimately up to the patient to decide what to do with his/her body. This falls under medical ethics: the patient has the right to refuse or choose their treatment. Likewise, this is combined with beneficience, that the doctor must act in the best interests of the patient. If the patient had said she was quite able to take care of the child (at that point in time there was no decision about keeping all eight of the embryos), then there would be no reason for the doctor to refuse to do the procedure.

The doctor would have taken steps to cover his own backside, such as statements from the patient indicating full responsibility for this action.

Doctors say no all the time to patients wanting certain stuff done that they shouldn't have.

Give me an example of this. The only time this would happen is if the procedure would do harm to the patient, and thus the doctor's legal obligation is to tell the patient all information they'll need to know to make their own decision.

Sure it might have been irresponsible of him, but doctors are human too, they can't be expected to know everything.

[Mars]

My sister is a doctor, and she turns people away whenever they A) Request something outside her scope of practice B) Request something illegal C) If they request something harmful to themselves.

In all these cases, it doesn't stop the patient from going to another doctor, one who might do whatever it is, but the hope is that such doctors are extremely rare.

[Darius]

It's unfortunate such doctors do exist, but if someone like that is found to deliberately do something wrong they'll (hopefully) be strung up in a noose by their medical board.

What field is your sister in Mars? GP?

EDIT: Actually I forgot that doctors can actually refuse to do a procedure for the reasons that Mars listed. It's when it falls into a grey area that the whole thing becomes a bit messy.

[General Battuta]

It may be that he could be sued, or at the very least violate his own oaths or otherwise be held responsible, if he didn't provide a service.

True, though it's a bit of a messy issue. Legally and ethically the doctor can't dictate what's going to be in the patient's best interest. It's ultimately up to the patient to decide what to do with his/her body. This falls under medical ethics: the patient has the right to refuse or choose their treatment. Likewise, this is combined with beneficience, that the doctor must act in the best interests of the patient. If the patient had said she was quite able to take care of the child (at that point in time there was no decision about keeping all eight of the embryos), then there would be no reason for the doctor to refuse to do the procedure.

The doctor would have taken steps to cover his own backside, such as statements from the patient indicating full responsibility for this action.

Doctors say no all the time to patients wanting certain stuff done that they shouldn't have.

Give me an example of this. The only time this would happen is if the procedure would do harm to the patient, and thus the doctor's legal obligation is to tell the patient all information they'll need to know to make their own decision.

Sure it might have been irresponsible of him, but doctors are human too, they can't be expected to know everything.

Thank you, this is what I was driving at but I didn't have the expertise to elucidate.

[iamzack]

I wonder what will happen now that the father's all coming out of the woodwork...