Coalition fighting sale of two hospitals
Loss of services feared if Catholic charity takes over
By Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Friday, November 30, 2007
Powerful civil liberties groups have joined forces to oppose the proposed sale of two metro hospitals to a Catholic health care organization.
Many doctors at the hospitals - Exempla Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge and Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette - also oppose the sale. The civil liberties coalition is considering legal action to stop the sale.
If the $611 million transaction goes through, medical staff at both hospitals must follow Catholic ethical and religious directives. That means doctors could not perform vasectomies, tubal ligations and abortions in the hospitals. They also could not give birth control counseling or remove feeding tubes for those in a persistent vegetative state.
"We’re just concerned about the loss of services that are going to result particularly to people in Jefferson County," said Roland Halpern, director of community relations for the local office of Compassion & Choices, an organization that supports choice in end-of-life decisions. [Read the rest of this story]