Tuesday, January 03, 2012

DOCTOR?

Recently, I was asked by a friend to comment upon a medication that her mother was being given for arthritis. She felt much better with the medication, but her "doctor" told her that she didn't want to give it to her because it may damage her kidneys. "Certainly, that's a possibility," I answered, "but there are many other medications and methods of treatment available." I then asked whether she was seeing a Rheumatologist. "She's only seeing Dr. X," was the reply. She then followed it by reading from a recent communication, "Dr. X, CRNP."

I agree, as I have in other publications, that anyone who earns a doctorate is entitled to use the term, "doctor." On the other hand, healt care is a different kind of field, and the use implies a particular kind and degree of training - either an MD or a DO and further specialty training. In a patient contact situation, anyone else who uses the honoritic, "doctor," must be absolutely clear who they are and, since that is not always possible, it's use must be avoided wherever it could be misleading.

The legal implications of misrepresentation, intentional or otherwise in health care are potentially staggering. If you are a patient, make sure that the "doctor" who is treating you is really the physician you think they are. If you have a doctorate in anything but Medicine or its functional equivalent and do not make your status clear, the next notice you receive could be from a court.

For questions about how to proceed, contact a knowlegeable health care attorney and don't get caught in the middle of a problem of your own making.

Monday, January 02, 2012

THE END OF AMERICAN RIGHTS!

In 1933, a group of NAZIs set fire to the German Parliament (Reichstag) and blamed it on terrorists. To ensure the safety of the German people, that same Reichstag passed the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State. This law effectively gave the German Chancellor (soon a newcomer named Adolph Hitler) nearly dictatorial powers and suspended rights that German citizens previously enjoyed. We all know how that turned out.

In the waning hours of 2011, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which makes it legal for ANY PRESIDENT (now or in the future, since there is neither a sunset provision nor a geographic limit) or his designee, to label an American citizen an "enemy combatant" or similar label and arrest and incarcerate them for life, without charge, trial, public notification, right to an attorney, or ANY of the basic constitutional guarantees the Founding Fathers fought for, and Americans have died to protect ever since (see Title X, Subtitle D, SEC 1021(a-e)). This statute makes the U.S. a nation whose ability to tyrannize its own people is not materially different from that of NAZI Germany, Stalinist Russia, or Bathist Iraq. Now, all that stands between us and a dictatorship is the good will of any single President; what has always been referred to as a “benign monarch.”

Benjamin Franklin once said that "those who would trade their freedom for a little security deserve neither and will lose both." The Patriot Act began the decline of American freedoms, and the NDAA has completed it. Thank you, Congress, for returning us to the dark ages of politics, and turning us into our enemies. Thank you, President Obama, for allowing the law to pass and leading us from freedom to tyranny. Most of all, the American people can now thank themselves for electing representatives who would nullify the Bill of Rights and give the government the right to arrest them on American soil and hold them in prison for life, without trial, if you protest any of its actions because that might make you an "enemy combatant" supporting terrorism.

As the comic strip, POGO, once quipped;

We have met the enemy, and he is us!