Okay, so I'm cranky...
Nov. 19th, 2004 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenIt's a Bob Herbert day at The New York Times, which is never a day to be excited about the Op-Ed section. Guess what Bob's finally cottoned on to? Condi Rice isn't a good choice for Secretary of State! No, seriously! And, and, and! She was a terrible NSA leader or whatever!!!
Well, he's getting better, kind of. That news is only what, one-two weeks old? ::sweat drops::
But the TRUE reason to be mad is this:Dangerous Medicine
A pro-life doctor has written a two-web-page-long op-ed about the abortion drug RU-486. Here's a fucking surprise: she says it should be removed from public usage.
Don't get me wrong, she's got the knowledge to back up her claims that the drug is often misused and that many uniformed people are screwing it up. Some doctors aren't even capable of handling the restrictions or don't seem to know them. However, I would like to point out that almost none of her objections center around the DRUG ITSELF being dangerous. Every example she cites is patient misuse related. Patient error cannot be the fault of the drug maker. They include instructions, people. There's instructions for how to take aspirin for fuck's sake, one of our 'safest' over-the-counters, and people still manage to fuck that up and kill themselves with it. So, of course someone taking a drug that will cause a more radical change to her body will fuck it up some of the time. It's more dangerous, but the principle is still the same--you cannot blame patient error on the drug or the doctor.
If, as this author describes, the clinics themselves are messing up, then, yes, see that they must pass an education seminar or certification to prescribe RU-486. I would never argue otherwise--they should know what they're prescribing. I don't truck with the old suggestion that the doctor writing the scrip has to be able to perform the abortion himself, but he/she should definitely know that RU-486 can only be used up to a certain number of days after conception, and an ultrasound should definitely be performed first to rule out ectopic pregancy.
But it all comes back to personal reponsibility again. It's the doctor's fault, it's the FDA's fault, it's those baby-killers' fault. It's never my fault. It's always your fault. I understand that when a loved one dies it's hard to think through the grief and admit "she did this to herself," but it happens, and the longer people deny it to themselves, the more deeply-rooted this belief in some conspiracy or unscientific blame-game tactics will get.
I had more to say, but I got up to do work and forgot what brilliant, insightful, seering, cogent argument I was going to make. If I remember it later, I'll repost. Basically, this article pissed me off, to make a long story short (too late).
Well, he's getting better, kind of. That news is only what, one-two weeks old? ::sweat drops::
But the TRUE reason to be mad is this:Dangerous Medicine
A pro-life doctor has written a two-web-page-long op-ed about the abortion drug RU-486. Here's a fucking surprise: she says it should be removed from public usage.
Don't get me wrong, she's got the knowledge to back up her claims that the drug is often misused and that many uniformed people are screwing it up. Some doctors aren't even capable of handling the restrictions or don't seem to know them. However, I would like to point out that almost none of her objections center around the DRUG ITSELF being dangerous. Every example she cites is patient misuse related. Patient error cannot be the fault of the drug maker. They include instructions, people. There's instructions for how to take aspirin for fuck's sake, one of our 'safest' over-the-counters, and people still manage to fuck that up and kill themselves with it. So, of course someone taking a drug that will cause a more radical change to her body will fuck it up some of the time. It's more dangerous, but the principle is still the same--you cannot blame patient error on the drug or the doctor.
If, as this author describes, the clinics themselves are messing up, then, yes, see that they must pass an education seminar or certification to prescribe RU-486. I would never argue otherwise--they should know what they're prescribing. I don't truck with the old suggestion that the doctor writing the scrip has to be able to perform the abortion himself, but he/she should definitely know that RU-486 can only be used up to a certain number of days after conception, and an ultrasound should definitely be performed first to rule out ectopic pregancy.
But it all comes back to personal reponsibility again. It's the doctor's fault, it's the FDA's fault, it's those baby-killers' fault. It's never my fault. It's always your fault. I understand that when a loved one dies it's hard to think through the grief and admit "she did this to herself," but it happens, and the longer people deny it to themselves, the more deeply-rooted this belief in some conspiracy or unscientific blame-game tactics will get.
I had more to say, but I got up to do work and forgot what brilliant, insightful, seering, cogent argument I was going to make. If I remember it later, I'll repost. Basically, this article pissed me off, to make a long story short (too late).
