I have had the experience of being involved in a law suit against an
unethical doctor. It's a profession, governed by a regulatory
self-governing body, also of questionable ethics, that has little
credibility in my books.
Bob,
Well said!
Keith Hudson
When Pascal wrote the following, he was talking about doctors:
"When malice has rationality on its side, it puffs itself up and parades
reason in all its lustre."
The quote is from John Ralson Saul's "On Equilibrium" and he seems to share
our scornful view of medical ethics. Caveat emptor! I will balance this by
saying that there are some very fine physicians out there who practice the
art of medicine with humanity - and they are well worth searching for - but
they are in the minority in a profession for which I have little respect.
Lest you think the law suit I was involved in was dismissed, I can offer
that there was an out-of-court settlement, once it was moving in the
direction of a jury trial, and a confidentiality agreement was imposed.
That's how these questionable folks silence their critics. Coincidentally,
the physician was represented by the same law firm that represented Conrad
Black in his suit against Jean Chretien, a couple of years back. They are
quite prepared to use every dirty trick in the book to squash upstarts who
confront them. Forget Hippocrates. That gives you some sense of how
seriously they respond to citizens who challenge them. Challenging them is
a fight worth fighting, nevertheless.
BB
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 3:54 PM
Subject: RE: Slightly extended (was Re: [Futurework] David Ricardo, Cavema n
Trade vs. Modern Trade
> accreditation is a thorny issue.
>
> It is nice to see the diplomas on the wall (of doctor, lawyer, engineer,
> architect) but are we sure they know what they are doing? and what if
they
> don't? what recourse?
>
> that is why I guess that people say, when moving to a new town ask around.
> find a doc in a teaching hospital (more accreditation and more
supervision,
> helping to catch the oafs).
>
> Friedman would say that the market will work. As long as information is
> provided (which it currently isn't. the medical world, for example is
> shrouded in cya and mystery) When a patient dies, in Friedman's model
the
> next prospective patient would move to a different doctor. Today with
> cover ups, when a patient dies there is no information on why this
happened
> or indeed if it happened at all. Unless of course there is a law suit.
>
> arthur
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 8:44 AM
> To: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM
> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED];
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Slightly extended (was Re: [Futurework] David Ricardo,
> Cavema n Trade vs. Modern Trade
>
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > Harry,
> >
> > Go back an re-read Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom. He makes a
> > strong case for getting rid of a lot of the accreditation in society
> > saying that it just builds enclaves of monopoly power. ie., privilege.
> [snip]
>
> It seems to me that the justification for accreditation
> lies in the HUGE NUMBERS OF PEOPLE, which
> prevents persons from verifying the competencies of the
> persons they need services from by first-person
> experience of performative evidence.
>
> Our doctors, et al., apart from their cdredentials,
> are mostly "pig in a poke"s to us. I don't see how this
> can be changed in the anonymo-city.
>
> However, perhaps the credentialling process can be
> shifted from multiple choice tests to the making and
> predsentation of masterpieces. This happens to
> some extent (e.g., for watchmaker trainees). But I
> think the tendency is away from personal presentation
> of evidence of mastery toward enhancing
> Educational Testing Service's
> services.
>
> Anoher problem is that even where supposedly
> evidence of mastery is the criterion, as in the
> PhD dissertation process, much of the time the
> "evidence" prouced is something that means nothing
> to the learner but which is of some use as
> cheap labor to those who already have their
> credential. I think we need to acknowledge that
> many graduate students do not yet have any
> really meaningful interests in their young lives,
> and we need to find a way to let them
> do the jobs they are training for without
> jumping thru hoops.
>
> For the mindful god abhors untimely growth.
> (--Holderlin)
>
> Dissertations should be optional productions, which
> come when "the spirit moves" a person to have
> something to say in an honorific sense.
>
> Besides making the creenialling process more
> genuinely reasonable as part of meaningful
> personal and social life, I think we also
> ned to tr to minimize the situations
> which require credentialling. Automobile driving
> licenses are an obvious example here: The whole
> instituional establishment of driver licensing
> only exists because persons cannot walk to the
> places they need and want to go to in their
> daily lives. We need to design out of
> life such regimentation-creating social
> structures. -- unless, of course, we genuinely
> enjoy being tested and geting credentialled and failing
> to get credentialled.... "Daddy, when can I take
> the SATs? I wanna! I really wanna! When, daddy,
> PLEASE!" "Sorry son, but you have to go to kindergarten
> first. You have to learn to be patient. You'll
> get your chance to do the fun things
> grownups do when you are old enough. You just
> have to have some patience...."
>
> \brad mccormick
>
> --
> Let your light so shine before men,
> that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
>
> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
>
> <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
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Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
