Sunday, October 13, 2002

Protecting the public Friday's Opinion Journal includes "Trial Lawyers and Clinical Trials - Medical research falls deeper into bureaucracy" by Daniel Henninger.  There is not really very much about lawsuits or trial lawyers, so one suspects that the inflammatory phrase was simply used to catch the reader's eye.  What the article addresses is the need to protect participants in clinical trials from medically questionable studies, and the politicization of that issue in light of revelations of abuses (a couple of years ago).  The possibility of liability claims is raised in a rather tangential fashion. The following is of interest: If there is one overarching issue here it is the steady, disintegrating status of the physician in U.S. society. Whatever the substance of the managed-care debate, a problem doctors helped create, the fact is that it has eroded traditional physician autonomy. Amid that, we have a concurrent movement, led largely by professional ethicists with access to politicians and the media, who argue that physician-researchers cannot be trusted. 5:49:33 PM     Universal health coverage is on the ballot In Oregon, as Proposition 23.  See DB's Medical Rants for lengthy quotes from two editorials pro and con. 5:35:36 PM

© Copyright 2002 Franco Castalone. Last update: 11/1/2002; 7:57:51 PM.