" On the national front, the American Medical Association made headlines at its 1992 convention when it declared war against murder and pledged to launch a national campaign against violence. "Murders will continue to increase until we start treating it like a public health problem," one attendee was quoted as saying. "If this were due to a virus, the American people and its leaders would be shouting for a cure," said former Surgeon General C Everett Koop. They're right. No one can argue with their message.
The cause of this great crusade, this mobilization of resources, is that more than 26,000 people were murdered in this country last year. Twenty-six thousand deaths is certainly a cause for concern. But wouldn't the AMA be better served—and better serve the public—if it expressed outrage on behalf of the 100,000 Americans who die each year from medical abuse and neglect? Shouldn't a medical association feel some obligation to police its own ranks before it tries to police the streets? If the AMA views 26,000 murders as an epidemic, what does it call 100,000 victims of medical malpractice?"
" The Burt case shows that the best way—perhaps the only way under present circumstances—of forcing incompetent doctors out into the open is through the courts. The only way of subjecting these practitioners to public scrutiny, and deterring malpractice is through the public attention attendant to lawsuits and trials. The courts have become the sole policing body for the medical profession, and malpractice lawyers have taken on the role of public prosecutors. Major lawsuits, with the major judgments that go with them, may not completely keep negligent physicians from practicing, but they are the one way that currently exists to deter these individuals from practicing their inept brand of medicine. "
Over the years, we have
given a lot of thought to why the medical profession adheres to this code of silence. What is it about this profession that causes it to protect its own at the expense of the public?"
Harvey F. Wachsman: Lethal Medicine
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
