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Why
Physicians
Should Not Kill Their Patients - Just the Facts - Followed by a brief
summary
of recent historical events of medical conduct contrary to basic
physician
to patient promises.
Pertinent historical statements taken from a nice grouping at The Texas Medical Association: http://www.texmed.org/
Pages 4 - 8
The Hippocratic Oath 400 B.C.
I swear by Apollo the physician, by Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and my judgement, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation — to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this Art, if they wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will follow that system or regimen which, according to my ability and judgement, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.
I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion.
With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art.
I will not cut persons labouring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work.
Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further, from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves.
Whatever, in connection with my professional service, or not in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret.
While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the Art, respected by all men, in all times. But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot.
The Patient-Physician Covenant: An Affirmation of Aesculapius
Medicine is, at its center, a moral enterprise grounded in a covenant of trust. This covenant obliges physicians to be competent and to use their competence in the patient's best interests. Physicians, therefore, are both intellectually and morally obliged to act as advocates for the sick wherever their welfare is threatened and for their health at all times.
Today, this covenant of trust is significantly threatened. From within, there is growing legitimation of the physician's materialistic self-interest; from without, for-profit forces press the physician into the role of commercial agent to enhance the profitability of health care organizations. Such distortions of the physician's responsibility degrade the patient-physician relationship that is the central element and structure of clinical care. To capitulate to these alterations of the trust relationship is to significantly alter the physician’s role as healer, carer, helper, and advocate for the sick and for the health of all.
By its traditions and very nature, medicine is a special kind of human activity — one that cannot be pursued effectively without the virtues of humility, honesty, intellectual integrity, compassion, and effacement of excessive self-interest. These traits mark physicians as members of a moral community dedicated to something other than its own self-interest.
Our first obligation must be to serve the good of those persons who seek our help and trust us to provide it. Physicians, as physicians, are not, and must never be, commercial entrepreneurs, gateclosers, or agents of fiscal policy that runs counter to our trust. Any defection from primacy of the patient's well-being places the patient at risk by treatment that may compromise quality of or access to medical care.
We believe the medical profession must reaffirm the primacy of its obligation to the patient through national, state, and local professional societies; our academic, research, and hospital organizations; and especially through personal behavior. As advocates for the promotion of health and support of the sick, we are called upon to discuss, defend, and promulgate medical care by every ethical means available. Only by caring and advocating for the patient can the integrity of our profession be affirmed. Thus we honor our covenant of trust with patients.
Source: Crawshaw R, Rogers DE, Pellegrino ED, Bulger RJ, Lundberg GD, Bristow LR, Cassel CK, Barondess JA. Patient-physician covenant. JAMA. 1995;273:1553. Copyright 1995, American Medical Association.
The Patient-Physician Relationship
“No physician, in so far as he is a physician, considers his own good in what he prescribes, but the good of his patient; for the true physician is also a ruler having the human body as a subject, and is not a mere moneymaker.”
—Plato (427?-347 B.C.) Source: Familiar Medical Quotations, © 1968 by Little, Brown and Company, Inc.
American College of Surgeons Fellowship Pledge
Recognizing that the American College of Surgeons seeks to exemplify and develop the highest traditions of our ancient profession, I hereby pledge myself, as a condition of Fellowship in the College, to live in strict accordance with its principles and regulations.
I pledge myself to pursue the practice of surgery with honesty and to place the welfare and the rights of my patient above all else. I promise to deal with each patient as I would wish to be dealt with if I were in the patient's position, and I will set my fees commensurate with the services rendered. I will take no part in any arrangement, such as fee splitting or itinerant surgery, which induces referral or treatment for reason other than the patient's best welfare.
Upon my honor, I declare that I will advance my knowledge and skills, will respect my colleagues, and will seek their counsel when in doubt about my own abilities. In turn, I will willingly help my colleagues when requested.
Finally, I solemnly pledge myself to cooperate in advancing and extending the art and science of surgery by my Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons.
Basic Rights of Patients
• Not to be killed intentionally or negligently. • Not to be harmed by intent or negligence. • Not to be deceived. • To be informed of risks and benefits. • To be treated by knowledgeable, competent practitioners. • To have his/her health and well-being more highly valued that the surgeon’s economic interest. • To decide to accept treatment under the above conditions.
Source: McCullough LB, Jones JW, Brody BA. Basic rights of surgical patients. Surgical Ethics. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Patient-Physician Relationship
Immediate Past
Psychiatrists in Communist Russia
Communist officials suppressed dissidents by having psychiatrists declare them mentally unstable so they could be locked up in asylums.
Physicians in Nazi Germany
The Nazis wanted German physicians to identify all Jewish patients, the retarded, and those with mental illnesses because they didn’t fit into the “master race.”
Current
Bosnia Bosnian officials are asking physicians to turn in patients who are Moslems and are excluding Moslem physicians from hospitals and participation in the medical community.
Rwanda Rwanda is using physicians there to identify anyone associated with the Hutus.
Upper Africa Physicians in Upper Africa are discouraged from speaking out against female circumcision.
United States - Kaiser Specific
Physician dissidents locked up in psychiatric wards in an attempt to declare them unstable to "teach them a lesson" so they will either conform or seek employment elsewhere. (Proof only to be provided to law enforcement or the U.S. Congress as it is highly sensitive information.)
Patients, in mass, medicated with anti-depressants in an attempt to not medically treat a patient but to cut company working costs and imply to those lulled into stupor that all medical conditions can be controlled by the pharmaceutical industry - the very backbone of the Kaiser conglomerate. "A pill will cure everything"- A fallacy that I (Vickie) first heard in science class in high school in the 1960's from a Kaiser patient teacher that later died under their care and that is still no where near being truthful.
Patients and government openly lied to regarding the outright killing of patients that need more than a pill for treatment or cure in the long term in an effort to distort medical data and keep the cost of running the various enterprises down.
Patients experimented on, often without their knowledge and often without any proven need - often paid for by pharmaceutical companies and of course by the FDA in the recent contract regarding proving what they already knew and had known for years - that the medication Vioxx was killing people.
Denying the existence of medical conditions and diseases that in the long term could cost a great deal of money in an effort to deceive the patient and distort for personal financial gain the true medical evidence.
Local and Federal Government openly lied to by having been presented distorted or intentionally miswritten medical proof that these companies are capable of following through and completing adequately and professionally medical contracts for the public benefit where in reality they are just sliding along reaping benefits off of the taxpayers money by doing as little as possible.
Physicians no longer practicing the "Art of Medicine" but rather following a Permanente written protocol which often results in shortened life span and needless human suffering because basic medical conditions do not fit into the written instructions and are often ignored. This is not done with the intent to further medicine but with the intent to further line the pockets of the stockholder/partners of the Permanente Medical Group and the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan which pays the Permanente Medical Group funds from unsuspecting consumers.