Tie A Knot in It

A Dutch newspaper reported on October 27th that a Belgian anesthesiologist was prevented from entering his operating room to treat a patient. This post uses parts of the translation of the article done by Religion News Blog.

The patient in question was a Muslim woman needing an emergency caesarean section to allow her baby to be born.

Papa Muslim, however, didn’t like the idea of a male doctor treating his wife, no matter the exigency of the situation. Mohammed says, “no male doctors may perform life-saving treatments on Muslim women, no how, no way.” Just ask any Dutch Somali imam. I’m sure it’s in the hadith somewhere.

You have to admire how the hospital staff ad-hocced this drama:

The woman was operated with the male doctor shouting instructions from a hallway to a female nurse.

Doctor Philippe Becx from Bree, Belgium, was called to the hospital in the middle of the night because a woman had to undergo an emergency caesarean section.

However, her husband blocked the door and demanded a female anesthetist. The latter was unavailable.

After a two-hour discussion proved fruitless, an imam was summoned. The imam permitted the doctor to apply an epidural injection, but only if the woman was fully covered with only a small area of skin showing.

During the surgery itself, performed by a female gynecologist, the anesthetist was to remain in the hallway. Through a door that was slightly ajar, he shouted instructions to a nurse who was monitoring the anesthesia.

According the hospital’s directors, the doctor acted with ‘admirable understanding.’ He would have been in his right to have the man removed by police.

Well, duh. And is the hospital even at this moment re-writing their rules to make certain that Muslim males may not interfere with medical or surgical procedures just because they don’t like Western culture’s indifference regarding the gender of the practitioner?

This would be amusing if it were not so ignorantly antediluvian.
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At least the doctor has filed a complaint that he was discriminated against by this fundamentalist idiot. You know the f.i. would’ve sued the hospital had his wife been endangered by his antics.

The anesthetist has now filed a complaint with an investigative judge, charging that he was hindered in fulfilling his functions, and that he was discriminated against since he was not allowed to do his job merely because he is a man.

The doctor further claims moral damage, since he could not fulfill his medical duties while he would still be liable should any complications have occurred.

Evidently this kind of idiocy has occurred before:

The Belgian organization of anesthetists says there have been other incidents between Muslims and male doctors. The organization demands clear guidelines from the government. “Tolerance is nice, but it may not jeopardize safety,” says chairman René Heylen.

“Tolerance is nice?? Not when it involves life-and-death issues, it isn’t. And in Europe, as in America, tolerance is in many cases nothing but lock-step absurdity carried to an extreme difficult to comprehend fully in all its bizarre surrealism.

Oh, by the way, Papa Muslim is charged with endangering the lives of his wife and child, though the doctor’s yelling into the operating room did make sure that the patients survived their relative’s 7th century approach to modern life. It makes you wonder, though, what kind of penal sentence will be imposed.

I can think of a very effective and final penal sentence for this sanctimonious missing link. Imagine letting your wife suffer through hours of useless, painful labor just to satisfy your religious lust. I hope she ties a knot in it.


Hat tip: Yorkshire Miner