A Christian doctor who was fired by the UK government after he refused to identify his patients by anything other than their biological gender, is suing his former employer for discrimination.
Dr David Mackereth worked for 26-years as an NHS doctor before he was sacked from his position as a Department for Work and Pensions disability assessor. The 55-year-old was deemed “unfit to work” after he refused to identify his patients by their preferred gender pronoun.
The father-of-four said it would be dishonest for him to act contrary to his beliefs and warned of the dangers in not allowing doctors and nurses to operate according to their own consciences.
“If we have no doctors or nurses with consciences anymore, anything could happen,” Dr Mackereth said. “We have to be allowed to have a conscience when we work as doctors or nurses, even if we disagree with each other on some things.”
Dr Mackereth told The Telegraph: “I believe that gender is defined by biology and genetics. And that as a Christian, the Bible teaches us that God made humans male and female. I could have kept my mouth shut. But, it was the right time to raise it.”
According to Christian Concern, Dr Mckereth’s lawyers at the Christian Legal Centre (CLC) claim the Department for Work and Pensions is in breach of the Equality Act for compelling staff to use ‘transgender pronouns’ against their freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of CLC called Dr Mackereth a “Christian hero” for sacrificing his distinguished professional career rather than compromise on the Bible and his conscience.
“The requirement to use so-called transgender pronouns defies common sense and Christian faith,” Williams said. “It serves no useful purpose except filtering out firm Christians and men of principle such as Dr Mackereth.
“If we tolerate this as a society, if we give in on the essential freedom of thought, conscience and religion, no other freedom is safe. We are determined to fight all the way to secure justice in this case.
“If freedom to tell the truth — in this case calling a man ‘he’ and a woman ‘she’ — is suppressed, then truth itself is suppressed,” Williams said.