Opinion
Stop name-calling against lawyers
LETTER — Posted Sept. 26, 2005
Regarding "Finding the way back to the heart and soul of medicine" (Column, July 18): As a long-time member of the AMA and an attorney as well as a physician, I am writing to question the strange analogy noted in the body of the commentary written by the new AMA President, J. Edward Hill, MD.
Dr. Hill discusses the need for a compass when lost in the swamps of Mississippi (or in the practice of medicine) and speaks of the "spiders, rodents, alligators and snakes that too often plague medicine, such as a number of personal injury attorneys."
It is such inflammatory language that continues to deepen the gap between the two learned professions of medicine and law and, in my opinion, sets a terrible example for the members of the AMA, who will be led by Dr. Hill for the next year. We need healing, not more name-calling.
Andrew Newman, MD, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/09/26/edlt0926.htm.
