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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Law - California lawsuit may channel Senator Miller's bill

"A controversial proposed bill to prohibit gays, lesbians and single people from using medical procedures to become pregnant has been dropped by its legislative sponsor." That is a quote from an Indianapolis Star story from 10/8/05, quoted here in the ILB. Other entries on Senator Millers bill may be found at: 10/4/05; 10/5/05; and 10/7/05.

I reread these entries this morning after reading this story in the San Diego Union-Tribune (thanks to How Appealing for the pointer). A state prohibition is not involved in the California case. But it sure raises a lot of interesting issues. Some quotes from the story, titled "Competing rights are weighed in bias suit."

A state appeals court in San Diego yesterday weighed competing claims of religious freedom and anti-discrimination laws during oral arguments in a key case involving a lesbian and two North County fertility doctors who refused to artificially inseminate her. * * *

The justices' questions focused on several areas, such as the interplay between the state's law banning discrimination in public places and other laws that allow medical professionals to refuse to perform certain procedures based on their religious beliefs.

The case involves a lawsuit filed in 2001 by Guadalupe Benitez, an Oceanside woman who sued two doctors and a medical clinic in Vista over her fertility treatments. She contended that the doctors * * * would not perform a certain kind of artificial insemination because their religious beliefs prohibited them from inseminating a lesbian couple. Lawyers for the doctors say Brody and Fenton told Benitez and her partner that other physicians at the clinic would perform the procedure.

The justices are weighing whether such an "accommodation" is a permissible solution to a conflict between a physician's religious convictions and the ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation. Attorneys for Benitez say it is not. * * *

The law allows doctors in some instances to refuse treatment based on religious grounds, such as performing abortions or doing blood transfusions. Jennifer Pizer, a lawyer for Benitez, said that exemption does not apply in this case because the doctors singled out Benitez because of her sexual orientation.

And this from the AP coverage (also spotted by Howard Bashman):
The case appears to be the first in the country in which a gay or lesbian patient was allowed to sue doctors over charges that treatment was denied based on sexual orientation, said Benitez's attorney, Jennifer Pizer of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 12, 2005 10:50 AM
Posted to General Law Related