Unlicensed Midwife Could be Fined up to $40,000
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - An activist group that seeks to eliminate restrictions on where women can give birth is coming to the defense of a Lancaster County woman accused by the state of practicing as a midwife without a license.Mrs. Goslin delivered my brother, Shad, over 14 years ago. Please pray that righteousness will prevail. Pray that Mrs. Goslin would be free to continue her lawful and much needed service (without penalty).
Diane Goslin is scheduled to appear today at a hearing before the [Pennsylvania] state Board of Medicine, which is considering whether she should be fined up to 40-thousand dollars for attending an Amish home birth in January 2005. Gosline says she has practiced as a lay midwife for 25 years. The state alleges that she is not licensed to practice midwifery, medicine or surgery.
posted by Scott Eash at 11:54 AM
4 Comments:
Three of my four siblings were delivered at home with the assistance of a midwife, and my son was born this past summer under similar circumstances. I am a big fan of midwifery. My sister had a very bad experience delivering her first child in a hospital, and I was very eager for her to give midwifery a try in her most recent pregnancy. She did! However, in the State of Georgia, where she lives, home births are illegal. She had the baby in a birthing center with the help of Certified Nurse Midwives. My sister was very happy with that, but in my opinion it is still a little bit less than ideal. On principle, I believe the Georgia law is unjust. I believe it prohibits something that is not inherently wrong. But God did not command us to give birth to our children at home. My convictions concerning the Georgia law notwithstanding, it would be unrighteous for my sister to disobey the law.
I don’t know the circumstances of the Pennsylvania case. Perhaps you do. But if the law requires a license for doing what Mrs. Goslin did, and if she did it without the required license, then her actions were both unlawful and unrighteousness, no matter how good and beneficial home birthing might be in general, and without regard to her skill or qualifications.
The state does have a legitimate interest in licensing the individuals who practice this profession. Yes, birthing a child is a natural process, but it does involve significant risks for both the mother and the baby. It is the state’s legitimate prerogative to establish guidelines in this area in an effort to safeguard the health and safety of mother and child. I’ll be the first to say that states are often ham-fisted and irrational in their regulations, but that does not give us just cause to ignore their authority – as some lay midwives do.
I will certainly pray that righteousness prevail, but depending on what Mrs. Goslin actually did, righteousness might require that she be punished.
In PA, it is illegal to practice medicine without a license. The purpose of this hearing was to determine whether or not midwifery falls into the category of "practicing medicine."
I take it you believe midwifery is not a medical profession. I agree. But it seems to fall into a gray area right on the fringes of medical practice. It seems strange that Pennsylvania does not regulate midwifery, and that the issue would be as simple as whether or not a midwife is practicing medicine.
You're right, it does seem strange. I don't know how much or how little midwifery is regulated in Pennsylvania. I find it even more strange that the news organizations have not run a story that reveals the outcome of the hearing. Before the hearing, they kept running the story over and over on the radio, but now they are silent. Perhaps details could be found on the web? Maybe I'll do some research.
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