Thursday, October 23, 2008

Is Informed Consent "Paternalistic"?

Emily Bazelon writes on "Oklahoma's gallingly paternalistic ultrasound law" at Slate:
Four states-Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma-have taken the galling step of requiring [pre-abortion ultrasounds] regardless of need. They recently passed laws that go beyond offering ultrasounds to mandating them. Oklahoma's new statute dictates that either the doctor performing the abortion or a "certified technician working in conjunction" with that doctor do the ultrasound, "provide a simultaneous explanation of what the ultrasound is depicting," and also "display the ultrasound images so that the pregnant woman may view them."
I'm not sure what law couldn't be described as gallingly paternalistic, but as long as I can't opt out of the gallingly paternalistic Ponzi schemes of Social Security and Medicare, I'm not going to worry about it.