(October 18, 2013 at 4:26 pm)apophenia Wrote:(October 18, 2013 at 4:09 pm)Cinjin Wrote: The photographer has every right to refuse a gig. Imagine he was a black photographer and a KKK group asked him to shoot their annual cross burning.
As much as I despise homophobes, he should have the right to decline any job he wishes.
This question also comes up in more serious contexts where religious beliefs conflict with the delivery of medicine and medical services. The case of whether a pharmacist can refuse to fill a prescription for birth control pills, whether a pharmacy should be required to do so despite objections of its owners, and whether religiously owned hospitals should be required to offer full services, including abortion, contraception, and other reproductive services, regardless of whether or not it conflicts with their religious beliefs.
Where ones own health and body are concerned there is a special condition that could easily be put into place if we didn't have to deal with religious asshats.
For me this argument could be easily overcome where it exclusively involves the practice of medicine.
Somewhere between the taking of the Hippocratic Oath and the issuing of one's license to practice medicine, any potential doctor should be required to sign a statement that would make it illegal for them to deny any kind of medical treatment based on their religious beliefs. If a doctor is not willing to sign that form, then legally they don't get to become a doctor.
Problem solved.