Felix Cook’s Feb. 19 online essay, “Putting the needs of the community first,” fails to state the whole reason behind the Exempla-Sisters of Charity dispute.
While few would argue that improvements in overall health care for the Denver community would occur, the Sisters focus on the “needs of the many” should not come at the cost of abandoning the few.
Cook notes that those denied services under Catholic ownership “represent less than 1 percent of admissions” but that is of little consolation if you are one of the approximately 654 people each year in need of those services. Even one person denied legally recognized health care services should be one person too many.
Contrary to his assertion that opposition to the transfer is “largely based on concerns over access to elective reproductive procedures,” Cook fails to address the very real concerns of others, including sexual assault victims in need of emergency contraception, loving couples who desperately want a child of their own; which may only be possible through in vitro fertilization, people with sexually transmittable diseases who may need counseling on the use of condoms to prevent the spread of infection, and patients who are in an unconscious state with no hope of recovery and who had previously expressed a wish not to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial life support.
Had Cook been at either of the public informational meetings on the proposed transfer, which both the Sisters and Community First declined to attend, he would have noted that almost eighty percent of the audience was seniors concerned about being kept alive against their wishes or being denied adequate pain medication at the end of life because Catholic Directive 61 espouses those in pain should be taught “to appreciate the Christian understanding of redemptive suffering.”
While Cook is “confident that the access (to services that would be discontinued under Catholic ownership) issues can be appropriately dealt with here,” Community First Foundation has repeatedly failed to disclose exactly who these alternate care providers would be, arrogantly suggesting that “If you want to know, get out the Yellow pages and look for yourself,” not a very comforting answer to a sexual assault victim who needs help at 2 a.m.
And finally, let’s be honest. If Community First Foundation was really concerned about the quality of health care at Lutheran and Good Samaritan why are they sucking $311 million dollars out of those hospitals and diverting it to other community projects that, while laudable, have little to do with essential health care services. As the Denver Post noted earlier this week, if the deal goes through Community First would jump from the 132nd largest foundation to number 27. It makes one wonder exactly whose “needs” they are putting first.
Roland L. Halpern (rhalpern@compassionandchoices.org) of Compassion & Choices, Coloradoans for Patient’s Rights, lives in Denver
