The Texas Senate has recently made headlines due to considering Senate Bill 25, a bill that would prevent parents from suing their doctor if their baby is born with disability.

The bill which was proposed back in March has become controversial because critics, including some doctors, say pro-life doctors would be able to withhold information or even lie during prenatal care. 

A doctor who sees that a fetus has issues may hide this fact into order to prevent parents from aborting the fetus without fear of repercussions.

Huffington Post senior reporter Catherine Pearson, writing on the web site on March 2, noted that “opponents have slammed (the bill) has a thinly veiled attempt to to curb abortion rights by extending protections to doctors who mislead their patients.”

This raises a moral question of should doctors lie or withhold information from their patients at any time?

Doctors should never lie to their patients under any circumstances due to not only moral reasons, but also because doctors are paid for their practice.

This bill goes back to the ever-debated abortion issue of if women should be allowed to have an abortion at all or under certain circumstances.

 A doctor who lies about potential birth defects due to religious or moral reasons, is in turn adding to a family’s hardship.

There is also an economic aspect to this argument. Medical bills add up fast, and just getting through the initial stage of life for newborns with complications can add tens of thousands of dollars.

Doctors are paid for a service, but if they lie, you can then make an argument that they have in a way cheated you out of money.

If someone walks into a fast food restaurant and pays for a burger, but instead gets three chicken nuggets, then you have been cheated.

These are breaches of contracts, and agreeing to do one thing but then doing another is not right and deceives people.

Everyone has their own beliefs and feelings, but should those beliefs affect others who do not share them?

Doctors need to set aside their personal feelings to better help their patients. If they truly feel strongly about their beliefs then they are welcome to voice them, but they should never hide or mislead information that may be vital to patients.