Word: ftc
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Advertise, says FTC judge...
...decision, which stems from a 1975 FTC complaint against the A.M.A. and two Connecticut member societies, Barnes ordered the association to "cease and desist" from prohibiting advertising. He also ruled that after a two-year interim, the A.M.A. could issue a new set of ethical guidelines on advertising but only "after first obtaining the permission and approval of the FTC...
Barnes' ruling must still be approved by the FTC commissioners, after which doctors will be able to start hiring copywriters. The A.M.A. will appeal the order. Dr. Robert B. Hunter, chairman of the A.M.A.'s board of trustees, noted that the organization's code does not prohibit advertising, only solicitation of patients. The distinction: ads provide pertinent information such as type of practice, office hours, and even the schedule of fees; solicitation involves self-laudatory or fraudulent claims, or patients' testimonials. The prohibition, says the A.M.A., is meant to protect the public from unscrupulous hucksters...
...A.M.A. was particularly outraged by Barnes' order that future ethical guidelines first get the FTC O.K. Said Hunter: "There is no legal precedent in the United States for the federal bureaucracy to write or approve a code of ethics for any of the learned professions...
...There are a whole range of options available to us." FTC spokesman Charles C. Shepherd said yesterday. "We can publish it fully or not at all, and everything in between," he said...