Now this is interesting. OK doctor, what do you want us to do here?
Doctor Threatens To Call Cops On Pregnant Woman If She Doesn’t Have Emergency C-Section
TAMPA (CBS Tampa) — A Florida doctor told a pregnant patient that he would call the cops on her if she didn’t have an emergency caesarean section because the baby was a week past his due date.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that Dr. Jerry Yankowitz, chairman of the obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Southern Florida, sent the threatening email to 35-year-old Lisa Epsteen.
“I feel abandoned. There has to be a level of trust between provider and patient, and that has been betrayed,” Epsteen told the Times. “It’s circumstances like this that make women feel like they have no options but to birth their babies on their own — and put themselves in more dangerous circumstances — because they feel bullied.”
The email stated: “I am deeply concerned that you are contributing to a very high probability that your fetus will die or your child will incur brain damage if born alive. At this time, you must come in for delivery. I would hate to move to the most extreme option, which is having law enforcement pick you up at your home and bring you in, but you are leaving the providers of USF/TGH no choice.”
Epsteen reached out to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women after receiving the email. The group sent a letter to the hospital questioning their medical ethics.
“Any attempt to force her to undergo the surgery by means of arrest and detention in the hospital is without legal justification and in defiance of a clear medical consensus that such threats and actions undermine maternal, fetal, and child health,” Lynn Paltrow, executive director of NAPW, said in a statement on the group’s website....
Doctor, you may have forgotten something. A crime is only a crime because a level of government (local, county, state or federal) has passed legislation making that act a crime. This woman may be showing poor judgement in this matter but a cop has no authority to make her into custody and "bring you in". And bring you in to where? I generally bring prisoners into a jail, not a hospital. They are in jail because they have broken a law.
Doctor, use a bit of judgement before you write an empty threat like this.
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