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AMA urges appeals court to block don’t ask doctor gun law

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Nov. 12, 2012

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The American Medical Association and other physician organizations are opposing Florida’s attempt to revive a state law limiting doctors from asking patients and families about whether they have guns in the home.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott approved the National Rifle Assn.-backed law on June 1, 2011. Under the legislation, physicians who asked patients about gun ownership without justification, entered unnecessary information about such ownership in medical records or discriminated against gun-owning patients faced possible sanctions by the state medical board. But in a Sept. 14, 2011, opinion, U.S. District Judge Marcia G. Cooke threw out the law, saying the loss of doctors’ First Amendment freedoms, even for a minimal period, constituted an irreparable injury.Scott appealed the decision to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The privacy law was crafted to respect doctors’ constitutional rights to free speech while ensuring patients’ rights to possess firearms without discrimination, Scott said in a statement.

The AMA, joined by nine other medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, issued a legal brief in the case on Nov. 5 condemning government-sponsored censorship of private discussions between patients and physicians. The state’s political interests do not justify a law that infringes on the patient-physician relationship and stifles relevant medical discussions in the exam room, AMA President Jeremy A. Lazarus, MD, said in a statement.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/11/12/gvbf1112.htm.

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