Bending the Hippocratic Oath Against LGBTQIA2S+ People in Florida

 Growing up in a home with a mom who was a Registered Nurse, RN, and hanging out with many medical doctors in training in various undergraduate and graduate schools in my college career, I was aware of the Hippocratic Oath. The father of medicine, Hippocrates, upheld high standards for treating patients and laid down these rules for all to-be physicians to follow. In short, it was, or is, “First, do no harm.” The longer version of it is here: https://doctors.practo.com/the-hippocratic-oath-the-original-and-revised-version/

One line I like a lot in the modern version of this Oath (in which people are not having to line up and praise a bunch of Greek gods) is this: Above all, I must not play at God. As a Christian theologian, I think this matters. I have been under care by some doctors and nurses who, I sense, have a Messiah or God complex, forgetting that I was, a) human, and b) had feelings and thoughts which were to be honored and recognized, and that, c) they were a god or goddess. I didn’t go back and see them again. And thank God I have a gay primary physician. That has made all the difference in the world. My previous doctor was in the closet, though everyone knew he was gay. 

Currently, the Governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, and the Florida legislature are playing like they are gods and goddesses. Whatever religion or faith Mr. DeSantis ascribes to, one thing is for sure: The Hippocratic Oath is not upheld in Florida. 

How so? First, children who are transgender are denied gender affirming care and treatment in Florida, and may be taken out of their homes if the parents continue gender affirming care. How is this not playing god? How is this not “doing harm?” Children who are transgender are being hurt in Florida, and not cared for and provided support, with the insane idea that “government knows best.” Is this not running hard against the Hippocratic Oath?

Here’s a link to this treatment of transgender children: https://truthout.org/articles/florida-passes-bill-that-allows-for-legal-kidnapping-of-transgender-children/

Then this week, medical doctors can choose not to care for a patient, like me, who is part of the the LGBTQIA2S+ community, based on the physician’s religious convictions. What religion says, “hurt people”? There is nothing in the Hippocratic Oath that allows a person in the medical profession to refuse care based upon one’s religious affiliation or conviction.

Here’s a link to this story: https://truthout.org/articles/floridas-latest-anti-lgbtq-law-legalizes-medical-discrimination/

I understand that Mr. DeSantis is running for President of the US, and wants to appeal to the MAGA wing of the party. But in doing so, he is hurting and abusing children who are transgender, let alone the LGBTQIA2S+ community of medical care. Put on top of that the bills that promote “Don’t Say Gay” bills, book banning, new bathroom bills for adults who are transgender and which bathrooms they can use, and COVID care that was never about care but brought about the death of thousands. Mr. DeSantis has blood on his hands. This is not the “Free State” of Florida, as he proclaims. Rather, it is turning to be a state in which the government is deep into the lives of people in controlling them in ways that are not merely harmful, but hate-filled.

In John 13:34-35, Jesus is asked what is the great commandment: To love one another. Mr. DeSantis and the legislators of the state of Florida are not showing much of this Jesus’ love in their latest legislative “victories.” 

And I’m still waiting for a response from the churches. Synagogues. Temples. 

Silence.