yo i am probably going to need a surgery and I noticed I was referred to a religious hospital by default and am not sure what to do about it. I haven't gone there yet. I don't know if I should just ignore that religiousness of it. I was kind of shocked to get a letter in the mail addressed to me with a big ol cross on the envelope.

how do you feel about hospitals (and other health care organizations) that have some tie to religion? I guess a lot of them used to be totally run by churches or whatever but have become somewhat secularized over time. now they get funding from taxes, non profits, insurance companies or whatever.

In my experience it is usually catholic with other christian denominations showing up and many major cities having at least one jewish hospital.

In terms of the anglosphere are there any other religions that have hospitals? I have never heard of a muslim, hindu or buddhist hospital in "the west" though these of course exist elsewhere. do they exist in the US? has anyone ever tried to start one?

In terms of your own (or your family's care)

  • do you judge them on their own merits?

  • Prefer/boycott them compared to others?

  • LGBTQ+++ people: do you trust them?

  • women: do you trust them? if you were choosing to carry a pregnancy would you have doubts about going to such a place when the time came?

  • religious people: do you trust the ones of other religions? or your own?

  • atheists: do you trust them?

  • indigenous people: do you trust them?

What kind of hiring practices do these places have? I remember hearing about Salvation Army being anti-queer in hiring. Are they generally allowed to discriminate in accordance of their religious bigotries?

Any other general political ideas too.

Is there any reason these places should be allowed to exist?

  • FunkyStuff [he/him]
    ·
    3 months ago

    I'm Catholic, I've been treated at Episcopal hospitals in my country, had family treated in hospitals from all kinds of Protestant churches. It's just not really a consideration at all, AFAIK the staff are all pretty much from random backgrounds and are unlikely to reinforce any bias that the founders may have had when the hospitals were founded a century ago. I think you probably could be skeptical if you were going there for an abortion or trans healthcare, but otherwise it's not a concern at all.

    Edit: with regards to whether they should be allowed to exist: I think not, all healthcare should be nationalized of course. But it wouldn't hurt to keep some part of it as a cultural relic if we're talking about the more relatively benign institutions, the ones that have been involved in indigenous genocide should definitely become entirely secularized and scrubbed clean of any ties to remaining religious institutions that were linked to the genocides.