[Khairan]

Originally Posted by Timbit

And where do you draw the line between refusing to fill a prescription for birth control pills and refusing to treat a patient with liver damage due to drinking too much?

Actually, there is a very clear line and it is already addressed by the medical community in some ways.

To whit: a person with alcoholic liver cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease will DIE without a liver transplant. Nevertheless, such patients are not and cannot be eligible for transplants unless and until they demonstrate that they have been completely sober for at least 6 months. We will let a cirrhotic die of liver failure before we transplant someone who is an active drinker. It is a practical choice in many ways, but I do feel there is an underlying moral decision being made there as well.

As to merely "treating" someone -- the difference between treating drug addicts and cirrhotics for the complications of their bad behaviours and "treating" pregnant women for the complications of their sexual behaviour is also quite clear. For those opposed to abortion, the latter involves taking the life of another person. That being the case, there remain worlds of difference in refusing abortions and refusing care to drug abusers.