Unbelievable!
However.
Because Jacob was born at home, I guess this could be about our family. I was just very disturbed when I read this article. I am glad for the outcome, but the fact that "the state" has to regulate every part of our lives is very upsetting to me. People have been having babies at home for centuries, but we are only just now "smart enough" to decide that we need to fine people when they help women do just that?
Midwife victorious in Penn. caseJeff Johnson - OneNewsNow - 6/2/2008 6:00:00 AM
A Pennsylvania court has ruled that lay midwives can continue delivering babies in the Keystone State.
The Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine fined Diane Goslin, an internationally certified lay midwife with 25 years experience, and ordered her to stop delivering babies after the board re-defined lay midwifery as the unlicensed practice of medicine. Randy Wenger, chief counsel with the Independence Law Center, represented Goslin.
"For communities who find home births to be important -- particularly, say, the Amish community -- by prohibiting lay-midwifery, it's really going to have a significant effect on a way of life," says the attorney. According to Wenger, the majority of home births in Pennsylvania are to Amish families.
Wenger says the court looked at the strict definition of practicing medicine in reaching its decision. "The appellate court has sided with Ms. Goslin and said that the laws that we have here in the state do not apply to lay-midwifery, and that she can continue her profession and she can continue helping those in the community."
The court did not consider the religious implications of the medical board's decision, Wenger says, as much as it looked at the literal meaning of the law. "So what the Commonwealth Court has done has been to allow home births to continue the way that they have been for, I guess you would say, centuries," Wenger concludes. "And I would applaud what the Commonwealth Court has done. It's sticking by the rule of law and it's standing by freedom."
Had the decision been upheld, Goslin would have faced a fine of $11,000.Article copied from here.
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