January 17, 2016

Harvard University Medical School Teaching Hospital Fires Respected Tenured Urologist For Speaking About Unhealthy Behavior



Dr. Paul Church

Here's a legal remedy. In Massachusetts where the hospital is, state law, MGL Chapter 265, Section 37, the civil rights statute, makes it a felony to intimidate a person in the free exercise of a constitutionally protected right. It applies to public officials and private individuals. The US Congress is considering a new law to protect speech in online comments about goods and services by customers. Currently some vendors punish, actually impose fines under their conditions of service for people who disparage the goods or services. There is a good discussion of this issue broadcast on C-Span at this link. JANUARY 15, 2016 Consumer Freedom of Expression Online. This proposed law may apply to Dr. Church too.  Panelists talked about gag clauses that prevent consumers from posting negative reviews of businesses. US Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) appears after the panel as a audience member. It is about an hour long. 

http://www.c-span.org/video/?403256-1/discussion-consumer-reviews

[From article]
A well-loved and respected doctor with a background in sexual-risk behaviors has been expelled from one of the United States’ most prestigious and top-ranked medical centers after he raised evidence-based health risk concerns over the center’s decision to endorse and celebrate the homosexual lifestyle.



Urologist Dr. Paul Church, a 65-year-old grandfather of 6, was expelled from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, Massachusetts, in March on the grounds that he had violated BIDMC’s “established standards of professional conduct” by using the center’s electronic information system “to communicate your unsolicited views about homosexuality that were offensive to BIDMC staff.”
“The MEC [Medical Executive Committee] has recommended imposition of disciplinary action, in the form of revocation of your appointment to the Medical Staff,” the March 30 letter of expulsion singed by BIDMC President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Kevin Tab stated.
Church called the medical center “so indoctrinated with a worldview” supportive of the LGBTQ agenda that it sees this movement as “beyond reproach,” even to the extent of viewing someone as a bigot and culpable of misconduct charges for raising legitimate criticism about the center’s promotion of this movement and its activities.
[. . .]


Dr. Paul Church with a young girl who he operated on while on a medical mission trip in Mexico.
Courtesy of Dr. Paul Church
Dr. Church, a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty, has worked as a urologist at the center for nearly 30 years, conducting research on prostate and bladder cancer. He has also offered his medical talents to the poor on numerous occasions during volunteer missions to Mexico and Africa.
It was 11 years ago that Church began to experience censorship and suppression from BIDMC officials, reported Mass Resistance. At this time, Church and other like-minded colleagues repeatedly raised concern with officials over the center’s decision to not only endorse the homosexual lifestyle by hosting an annual “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Achievement Award ceremony,” but to involve staff in LGBTQ events including participation in Boston’s annual “Gay Pride Week.”
[. . .]
“The evidence is irrefutable that behaviors common within the homosexual community are unhealthy and high risk for a host of serious medical consequences, including STD's, HIV and AIDS, anal cancer, hepatitis, parasitic intestinal infections, and psychiatric disorders,” Church submitted to officials via the center’s communication system after receiving an LGBT-related communication.
[. . .]
Church called it “all together inappropriate” for BIDMC to “endorse, affirm, or encourage the behaviors ‘celebrated’ by Gay Pride Week.”
“This action again jeopardizes the credibility of BIDMC as a healthcare institution and dishonors a large proportion of its community who continue to hold to the conviction that homosexuality is unnatural and immoral,” he wrote.
When Church realized his submissions were being systemically ignored by officials, he would occasionally post them on the center’s internal electronic messaging board.
[. . .]
In 2007, when Church once again responded to the center’s invitation to attend an LGBTQ-themed event, instead of addressing his concerns, the center’s president at the time, Paul Levy, posted excerpts of the complaint — with no names attached — on his own personal blog.
[. . .]
Levy felt compelled to point out in a response to one comment that Church’s “personal beliefs are not transmitted to patients and do not affect his treatment of patients who come to see him. I felt I should respect his statement, and, indeed, we have received no complaints that would indicate otherwise.”
[. . .]
Church found himself being investigated by the head of his department, Chief of Surgery Dr. Eliot Chaikof, on “harassment” charges on account of his offer to appear in the center’s LGBTQ promo video. Church was told he had “crossed a line” and was either facing suspension or having his staff privileges entirely revoked. He was given the option to voluntarily resign.
[. . .]
“This investigation is also not about whether you agree with my worldview or convictions. What it is about is a fundamental freedom of expression of dissenting ideologies and even more than that, it is about an illogical, inappropriate policy decision on the part of the medical institution that flies in the face of our greater mission of promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyles.”
[. . .]
But instead of siding with Church’s evidence-based concerns, the committee reprimanded him for violating the center’s policy against “harassment and discrimination in the workplace” and for sending what it called “inappropriate content” through the center’s internal electronic messaging board.
“Your opposition to diversity training and to BIDMC’s support for the annual Gay Pride Week events has been expressed in offensive terms and, at times, in a discourteous manner,” the committee stated in its November 2011 letter to Church.
[. . .]
The committee attempted to muzzle Church, warning him that if he did not immediately cease communicating in the workplace his “opinion about sexual orientation, homosexuality or other protected status” his staff privileges would be revoked.
In April 2012, Church requested that BIDMC’s communications department not send him further notices regarding LGBTQ activities. His request was ignored. Between 2013-14 Church continued to receive an ever-increasing number of emails and notices affirmative of the LGBTQ lifestyle.
To one such communication received in 2013 he responded: “Celebrating sexual perversions is highly inappropriate, especially in the context of a medical center that should be aware of the negative health consequences of high risk behaviors. It also ignores and dishonors the religious convictions and moral objections that many members of the hospital community share who are opposed to these behaviors.”
[. . .]
“The data comes from credible sources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and shows that [skyrocketing rates of sexually transmitted diseases] is primarily a result of men who have sex with men and those who engage in anal intercourse. The latest statistics that CDC has is that men who have sex with men account for two-thirds of new infection of HIV and that they are the only group where syphilis is on the increase.”
“The point is that [homosexual practices and behaviors] are not harmless. There are considerable negative medical consequences [when engaging in these practices],” he said.
[. . .]
“When a hospital tells somebody that you can’t tell the truth about serious health issues because it might hurt somebody’s feelings or that it’s not politically correct, that’s terribly frightening.”
“Health driven by ideology puts people at risk because we’re no longer talking about what is truly healthy, we’re talking about pushing a position that could be totally contrary to good health practices,” he said.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/leading-boston-hospital-fires-doctor-for-raising-concerns-about-health-risk

Thu Jun 25, 2015 - 12:17 pm EST
Leading U.S. hospital fires doctor for raising concerns about health risks of gay sex
Pete Baklinski

https://youtu.be/LbUSAML_U7E

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