Bucks Montgomery Physician Summer 2021 - 11

is not the case. Will Kymlicka, a Canadian philosopher, feels
that a liberal society is tied to consideration of membership in
minority cultures and discusses how societies should respond
to illiberal cultures in their midst (Multicultural Citizenship: A
Liberal Theory of Minority Rights, Oxford Scholarship Online,
November 2003). This perspective is partly relevant to PA,
where certain cultural illiberal views interfere with justice
in the American family, in a democratic liberal society that
historically respects individual autonomy. He admits that
" there has been a striking diversity of views within the liberal
tradition, " but autonomy is part of the US Constitution (The
Constitution of the United States of America). It certainly did
not consider the rights or autonomy of women, the enslaved,
or native minorities in 1789. These groups were legally or
effectively considered property, or devoid of constitutional
rights, including the right to vote.
Personally, I cannot believe that views of political conservatives
in defending an " originalist " view of the US constitution, or the
rights of women and many minorities as omitted from equality
of justice, can be justified in present times in the United States.
Libertarians would not necessarily interfere with the rights of
women, nor would they work for gender justice in families or
for support of the families who suffer because of lack of justice.
I agree with Okin, that " the personal is political " and justice is
not served by interfering politically with the rights of women
and families. Reproductive freedom and control is vital to
women being autonomous and non-dependent. Legislative
control by those who put their particular religious beliefs
before the equality of all citizens regardless of gender or others'
beliefs violates the principles of our democracy, and justice.
They are ignoring medical decisions that are private and
should be decided by a woman and her physician. Politics may
be relativistic, but medical truth is not. Politics has no place in
medical treatment or decisions. I urge my colleagues and those
who respect the rights of others, and respect justice, to work
with me to defend the rights of women by contacting your
state legislators to oppose political interference in our rights in
PA!
Note: This essay is the opinion of the author, not of the
Pennsylvania Medical Society, Montgomery County Medical
Society, or any other institution. PAMED opposes government
interference in the practice of medicine and the physician/
patient relationship.
As an addendum, there are those who claim that a Jewish embryo
does not become a human being until they get their MD!
BUCKS AND MONTGOMERY COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETIES 9
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Bucks Montgomery Physician Summer 2021

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