News Nov 2, 2011 at 4:00 am

From Swedish Fish to Jesus Fish

Will Swedish Hospital's Takeover by Catholics Result in More Restrictive End-of-Life and Anti-Abortion Policies for Seattle Patients?

Goldy
Back to article

Comments

1
Healthy women can have abortions in any clinic in town. We have good coverage for that.

Women who need medical care are the ones that will suffer - even as simple as a woman with slightly higher blood pressure or asthma. The addition of a clinic by Planned Parenthood doesn't help with that - they refuse help women that have any degree of medical issue either.

Will women even be told of their options? Or will the be denied service and information.

This is a huge blow for women.
on November 2, 2011 at 10:15 AM Report this
2
Evergreen Hospice is nondenominational and has experience supporting patients who choose Death with Dignity. Their service area includes all of King County, with some extension into outlying areas.
lforrest on November 2, 2011 at 6:15 PM Report this
3
I'll die BEFORE succumbing to PeaceHealth.
auntie grizelda on November 3, 2011 at 12:58 AM Report this
4
How is this a huge blow for women? I wasn't aware the Swedish Hospital was currently a supplier of abortions. This whole article is fearmongering nonsense. Nothing is going to change at Swedish Hospital. I worked for Catholic Healthcare West in California, where there were no Death with Dignity laws, and every care was taken to keep the patient as comfortable as possible and not to prolong life in terminal cases.

And btw, Catholics don't do the Jesus Fish thing. That's the Protestants.
spider88 on November 4, 2011 at 4:15 PM Report this
5
spider88, in the simplest terms, you don't know shit.

Swedish did do some abortions, quietly, for high-risk women who cannot be safely seen at outside clinics. That will end. Many Catholic hospitals also have a moral clause for physicians contracted with them, forbidding them from participating in abortion even when at another facility. Will Swedish still provide emergency contraception to rape survivors in their busy ER? How about tubal ligations? How about complex ART procedures that may result in embryo destruction?

There is a death with dignity law in Washington, voter-approved. This isn't a theocracy. The religion of a health care provider does not trump the right of people to receive appropriate and legal care. You want to pull the moral card? Do some other kind of work. I hear podiatrists have very little night call.
sage-femme on November 4, 2011 at 4:24 PM Report this
6
Sage-Femme You are the one who doesn't know shit. You're being anti-Catholic and not doing you're homework. Catholic hospitals everywhere provide emergency surgery for ectopic pregnancy. What's your proof that Swedish *currently* treats rape survivors in the ER? Harborview is around the corner, ffs. Catholic Hospitals have ended pregnancies that saved the mother's life, without regard for the bishops threatening (or actually) ex-communicating them. Meanwhile, secular hospitals let miscarrying women bleed out in the ER because no on there wants to do a D&C, or wasn't trained to.

Swedish (which is a Lutheran organisation, something oddly not mentioned here) CURRENTLY DOES NOT PROVIDE DEATH WITH DIGNITY. CURRENTLY.

Stop being a knee-jerk anti-Catholic. Again, the Jesus Fish isn't even a Catholic symbol.
spider88 on November 5, 2011 at 1:22 PM Report this
7
Glad I don't go to Swedish, but then again .... I should contact some of their doctors.
KittenKoder on November 5, 2011 at 4:29 PM Report this
8
Comcast is the subject of a class action lawsuit in King County superior court Court: King Co Superior Ct
Case Number: 11-2-34714-1
they are making employees work off the clock. why give franchise to company engaged in illegal activity?
on November 5, 2011 at 10:05 PM Report this
9
Comcast is the subject of a class action lawsuit in King County superior court Court: King Co Superior Ct
Case Number: 11-2-34714-1
they are making employees work off the clock. why give franchise to company engaged in illegal activity?
on November 5, 2011 at 10:06 PM Report this
10
Spider is right. One thing the article mentions in passing, but is a crux issue, is that Catholic hospitals, which are generally located in urban areas, provide health care to millions of people (many of them poor) every year, and are a critical part of the overall health care system. Yes, they don't perform abortions, but neither do many other hospitals and health care clinics around the country. Catholic hospitals do not exist to perpetuate dogma--they exist to treat people regardless of religion, and often regardless of people's ability to pay. By the way, my mom died in a Catholic hospital (after having a major stroke), and they completely respected our wish (and hers) to not prolong her life once it was clear she had no hope of recovery.

This is a non-story, and just another attempt by The Stranger to bash religion for the sake of doing so.
Irish on November 7, 2011 at 9:22 AM Report this
11
Don't let catholics control anything. They bring denial, abuse, ignorance and exploitation to every institution they touch. They simply cannot be trusted with the lives of little boys or old ladies.
Lilly Munster on November 7, 2011 at 4:58 PM Report this
12
Or adulthood. My friend was having what I thought was a panic attack. We were about nineteen. I took him to the emergency room at the nearest hospital in our small town, which happened to be a Catholic facility. The woman at the admission desk asked him if he had taken drugs, and he said not that day but that he had smoked pot about a week before that, and that he smoked it several times a week on average. They tsk tsk'd him, left him sitting in the ER for-fucking-ever, and he ended up having a seizure on the floor while waiting. At which point they still didn't take him back to see a doctor, but one did bring him water and a pillow and, when asked what was holding up his care, responded condescendingly with, "Well I guess maybe you shouldn't take illegal drugs, heh." I was aghast. Fuck Catholic hospitals and their harmful judgmental bullshit. Had we been wiser then, I would have told him to sue.

Swedish is publicly throwing support behind a new Planned Parenthood in Seattle. The Times has written several times this month about it, but I am not in favor of Catholic anything when it comes to reproductive health care.
on November 8, 2011 at 8:16 AM Report this
13
Folks, you might want to read my original Crosscut story about the Catholic impact of the Swedish-Providence affiliation, which has more background on what's happened in other places after such mergers (including kicking out hospitals that violate Catholic policies). I broke the story. Contrary to what one poster said, Swedish doctors and hospice staff do participate in helping patients with their Death with Dignity options, even though Swedish, like other hospitals, does not allow patients to take the lethal medication on premises. There are also questions about what other Catholic policies Swedish may adopt down the line on reproductive and end-of-life care, such as mandatory tube feeding. These are serious issues for all patients at Swedish and other hospitals around the country that are merging with Catholic systems. http://crosscut.com/2011/10/16/health-me…
HarrisMeyer on November 8, 2011 at 10:26 AM Report this
14
@4 BAD TITLE - agreed! thanks for calling out the jesus fish thing: shame on goldy/his editor for the terribly inaccurate association between catholics and protestants (not to mention the maligned now-canadian candy!!) - hell, from this title, one could think IKEA is being taken over by Casey Treat.
not to mention the flattened-oval symbol has a much older history, as that of the (yonic)symbol, when rotated 90 degrees from the protestants' bumpersticker use; for vagina.
i.e. Protestants = Fishmongers!!

Makes this image rather freudian, though: File:Codex_Bruchsal_1_01v_cropped.jpg">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_…

Rev.Smith on December 9, 2011 at 2:54 AM Report this

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview
Posted by (your name here)

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

More In News

Denny Blaine Is Saved
Lefty Organizer Saunatina Sanchez Launches Challenge Against Tanya Woo for City Council
Republican City Attorney Ann Davison Throws Municipal Court into Chaos
SPD Is Having Trouble Retaining Women Officers
It Costs $20 per Vote to Win a Seattle City Council Seat
Total Corporate Takeover of Council Now Complete

Editors' Picks

The Hot Charlotte at the Zig Zag Café
The Animal in You
Death of a Kinkster
Having a Laugh with Bandit Theater Improv
Seattle Sticker Patrol: Columbia City Has Eyes 👁️
Democrats Kill Bill to Legalize Alcohol in Strip Clubs
The Stranger
is a proud member of the media network
Masthead Ad Info & Rates Jobs at The Stranger Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use Takedown Policy Find The Stranger Near You
Support The Stranger
All contents © Index Newspapers LLC
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134