repoman

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4933-2002May11.html" target="_blank">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A4933-2002May11.html</a>

Why are they ACTIVELY letting immigrants not assimilate with our taxmoney? This is very frustrating. I don't want to live with active muslims, and I want to do nothing to keep that tradition alive here.

The Other Michael

Hi Repoman,

This is probably one of those fine line/balancing situations.

The medicos are there to provide medical services to the patient. If they can't communicate with the patient, they probably are not going to be able to provide a high (or even good) quality service. And part of communicating is going to involve being aware of cultural differences that would act to inhibit the delivery of medical services.

If it is something like letting relatives bring in cultural foods I can't see a problem as long as they make sure the foods aren't going to create a medical problem and the relatives are doing the preparation.

When it gets to the point of having a staff member offering religious services like a ritual cleansing of the OR, I think that's going a bit far. But the article didn't give that impression to me.

It is the same situation in a lot of schools. My sweetheart's mom taught kindergarten/first grade her in San Francisco for many years. I think in her last years it wasn't uncommon to have 10-15 different languages spoken by the students. Try dealing with that, along with a few moderately whacked-out children thrown in to the mix.

cheers,
Michael

Bree

IMHO, hospitals need to accommodate a bit.

One lesbian couple (my coworker Krista's aunts) just had a baby. The local hospital physically barred the partner from being in the delivery room before, during, and after the baby was born. The partner was also not allowed to visit the baby, or even see her. When other female relatives came calling they were also banned from seeing the new mother or the baby - the nurses were afraid that these women were sexual partners! Stuff like this needs to be curbed a bit - this poor woman was two days in labour with no one around to talk to!

As far as cultural differences, you might want to take a look at the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374525641/qid=1021257581/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_67_1/002-8764338-6217643" target="_blank">The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down</a>, which is a commentary about culture clashes and modern Western medicine - it's about a Hmong family in California who tries to get help for their epileptic daughter and the nasty things that result when either side is not willing to give a bit.

Remember also that Christianity is not a native religion to this nation - if you are going to ban all foreign religions you might as well sweep up Christianity as well.