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Manama: The Bahrain Medical Society (BMS) on Thursday threatened to take legal action against the health ministry if it endorsed a parliament motion demanding that patients be treated only by doctors and nurses of the same sex.
"We will also sue any health official with medical accreditation who takes an active part in the proposed measures banning opposite gender medical examination. The legal action will be based on violating the principles of medical practice and on promoting sexual discrimination," Dr Abdullah Al Ajmi, the society president, said in a press statement.
MPs on Tuesday tabled a motion to ban opposite-gender medical examinations except in emergency cases.
Al Wefaq, the largest bloc in the Council of Representatives, attributed its motion to frequent complaints by patients that male doctors and nurses were examining female patients and that female medical staff treated male patients.
The society, with strong ties to religious leaders, wanted the proposal to be extended to the treatment of bodies in the mortuary.
The motion, although unscheduled, was taken up as an urgent matter by MPs and the services committee will draft a report that the council will discuss before submitting it to the upper house and the government.
"This proposal will deprive doctors of choosing specific medical specialties and will bar medical students from studying fields that they like. If the government accepts the motion, it will be breaking the laws on medical practice," said Al Ajmi.
"Male and female doctors have throughout the ages treated patients regardless of their sex. Being a doctor means being part of a noble and humane profession that has nothing to do with the arguments of the MPs."
Activist Mahmood Al Yousuf blasted the motion as a violation of rights.
"What does it matter if the doctor treating a sick patient is of the opposite sex? I can understand in some cases patients might be embarrassed discussing their delicate health issues with a doctor of the opposite gender. This, however, surely should be left to the patients themselves to decide, rather than bring out yet another completely useless piece of legislation that not only makes us the laughing stock of the world, but, much more importantly, might waste lives," he wrote in his blog.
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