What is the truth?

2013-01-19 Thread Paul Laska
There are various criticisms of John Lott's research, such as http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/12/17/who-is-gun-advocate-john-lott/191885 What is the take of the learned members of this site? Thanks, Paul -- *Paul R Laska* *PO Box 1423* *Palm City, FL 34990* * * *772-781-9014 landline*

Re: Doctors asking patients about guns

2013-01-19 Thread Phil Lee
I'm thinking that you must not have understood the point I made about professional boundaries and ethical restrictions on them. To start your comment '“Boundary violation” assumes the conclusion that it’s proper for the government to set . . .' is completely off the mark.  No one is talking

Re: What is the truth?

2013-01-19 Thread Henry Schaffer
On Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 12:24 PM, Paul Laska dactylographer...@gmail.comwrote: There are various criticisms of John Lott's research, such as http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/12/17/who-is-gun-advocate-john-lott/191885 I started reading this - it is not oriented to a discussion or even

RE: Doctors asking patients about guns

2013-01-19 Thread Volokh, Eugene
If the argument is simply that you don't want to answer the doctor's questions about guns, and suspect that your doctor isn't really knowledgeable enough about guns, I have no quarrel with that. But I understood the argument to be that such questions should be prohibited by law, or by rules

Re: doctor boundaries

2013-01-19 Thread C D Tavares
On Jan 19, 2013, at 3:00 PM, Volokh, Eugene wrote: The question on the table is what questions doctors may ask. It doesn't take much authority to ask questions -- just the same authority (flowing partly from the First Amendment and partly from just normal liberty) for you to ask me a

Re: Doctors asking patients about guns

2013-01-19 Thread C D Tavares
On Jan 19, 2013, at 2:45 PM, Volokh, Eugene wrote: If the argument is simply that you don't want to answer the doctor's questions about guns, and suspect that your doctor isn't really knowledgeable enough about guns, I have no quarrel with that. But I understood the argument to be that

RE: doctor boundaries

2013-01-19 Thread Volokh, Eugene
This argument strikes me as oddly similar to many gun control arguments - because some people may act badly based on certain information, we should bar them from even asking for that information, even if that means restricting what would otherwise be constitutionally protected

Doctors asking patients about guns and the Miranda analogy

2013-01-19 Thread Volokh, Eugene
It seems to me the Miranda principle cuts in precisely the opposite direction. Recall that Miranda applies only when a police officer questions a suspect who is in custody. Even though a police officer always has some degree of coercive authority, non-custodial questioning

Restricting doctors' First Amendment rights

2013-01-19 Thread Volokh, Eugene
If you want to propose that the government be limited in requiring doctors to provide certain information about patients, that could be perfectly sensible. But restricting doctors' First Amendment rights to ask questions because maybe that information will eventually end up in the

Re: doctor boundaries

2013-01-19 Thread Phil Lee
This discussion has nearly run its course.  First Amendment rights apply only regarding action by government and not to ethical restrictions on doctors (since lawyers are also bound by ethical restrictions on speech, I wonder why Eugene doesn't grasp the point); I haven't proposed government