Honey of the South
I think it may be right to accomodate those of minority groups, but not white people. The minorities I can understand wanting to see a doctor of their race since it may make it easier if they have something that is more common in their race than it is in others. Example would be like sickle-cell anemia. Those of other races may not have any way to relate to those kinds of things.
DAFUQ??
It's okay for minorities to be racist but not majorities?
Every race has certain possible medical conditions that are more likely in their race. It doesn't mean the attending physician is not trained in said condition regardless of race. Likewise male doctors can not give birth but they can still be well trained in prenatal care and birth.
I find swastika guy offensive but I still support his right to have a preference about who attends him or his family. He was talking about care of his one baby. He was not demanding the hospital fire its black employees or anything like that. I think the dude is misguided but I just don't see it as a big deal to honor his request. It also minimizes the chance of him suing if something goes wrong.
As I stated in a similar thread, some black people are probably more comfortable being attended by black medical staff. You say so yourself in your post. In a sense you are saying the reason behind a person's preference is what matters. Because, you know, some black people are extremely racist too. Their reason for not wanting a cracker working on them may have nothing to do with familiarity with like diseases. They may just hate on whitey.
In summary though what I see here is rights of the consumer (no matter how screwed up he/she is) being confused with employee / employer rights. If the employees suing can show they were in some way treated badly by their employer or lost hours or pay or seniority or anything like that based on their blackness then go for it. If all they can show is they were assigned to other babies and still got their normal hours and pay etc. then I hope they lose their lawsuit because I don't feel they were discriminated against by their employer. By the same token I don't have any problem with a hospital honoring a patient who prefers a black nurse or a female doctor over a male. If it is easy to accommodate - great. If it forces extra costs like bringing someone additional on shift then the patient should bear the extra cost.