Re: The Ethicist -- Doctor, Bully
From: Gerald P. Rodriguez (geraldpr@cybermesa.com)
Sun Mar 30 10:13:29 2008
Ah yes, the sacrosanct New York Times--never lets a pro-tort issue go by
without full and unbridled support.
Gerald P. Rodríguez, M.D., FACOG
Santa Fe
>----- Original Message -----
From: "Dean Huffman" <dean@thehuffpeople.net>
To: "Multiple recipients of list OB-GYN-L" <ob-gyn-l@mail.obgyn.net>
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2008 9:29 AM
Subject: The Ethicist -- Doctor, Bully
> .
>
> From The NY Times
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/magazine/30wwln-ethicist-t.html?ex=1364529600&en=aba70976751eaf27&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
>
> - - - -
>
> The Ethicist
>
> Doctor, Bully
>
> By RANDY COHEN
>
> Published: March 30, 2008
>
> The gynecologist I've seen for seven years has begun requiring patients to
> waive their right to a day in court and to accept binding arbitration to
> settle any potential disputes, or she will not treat them. I sought care
> elsewhere but discovered that nearly all ob-gyn practices in the area make
> the same demand. Is this policy ethical? KATHLEEN WAGNER, PALM HARBOR,
> FLA.
>
> --
>
> It is not. The law may allow it, and (except in an emergency) medical
> ethics permit doctors to choose their patients, but a doctor's criteria
> for choosing are still subject to scrutiny. Your doctor has instituted a
> dismal policy that compels patients to surrender a basic legal right in
> order to receive medical care.
>
> If a single physician were so skittish about malpractice suits (or so
> uncertain of her own skill) that she would see only patients who would
> forgo access to the courts, no problem: you could walk down the street to
> another practitioner.
>
> But if all, or nearly all, doctors make the same demand, there's nowhere
> else to go; a fundamental right is eradicated. Conduct that is merely
> inconvenient if pursued by a few people can become intolerable when widely
> adopted.
>
> Your gynecologist might reasonably insist that patients try mediation as a
> first step. But she may not, even inadvertently, be part of a group action
> to bully patients into surrendering access to our legal system.
>
> There are some rights we can be pressed into waiving. Confidentiality
> agreements limit our ability to express ourselves; noncompete agreements
> limit our employment choices. Other rights are sacrosanct. We may not sell
> a kidney or work for less than the minimum wage or hire a guy to shoot us
> in the kidney for $2 an hour.
>
> The right to our day in court should be among the inviolable.
>
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