Word: gagged
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Perhaps one step toward more civility and community would be a modification of the famous injunction in Henry VI: First, let's restrain -- not kill -- all the lawyers. Then add a second proposal that Shakespeare never had to think of: Let's gag all the crybabies. Better yet, let them gag themselves...
...doctors, already beset by nit-picking insurance companies, shrinking Medicaid payments and malpractice lawyers, the gag rule seemed the final intrusion -- one that was doubly galling because it came from an Administration many had supported. Says Alan Altman, a gynecologist in Brookline, Mass.: "((The government)) bothers me in the pocketbook, it bothers me in the delivery room, but it has never before bothered me in the consultation room." Dr. Laura Sirott, a Pasadena, Calif., obstetrician- gynecologist who describes herself as a past supporter of Bush, complains that the gag rule violates a patient's right to be fully informed. "This...
There are practical considerations as well. Although the gag rule includes an exception for life-threatening pregnancies -- in which case women can be referred for "emergency care" -- it is not at all clear what doctors are supposed to tell women with diabetes, congenital heart disease or multiple sclerosis. These illnesses could make pregnancy risky, but are not necessarily life threatening. If a woman with AIDS or Tay-Sachs disease is in danger of bearing an abnormal child, a doctor who did not give her that information and describe all her options could be liable for malpractice or "wrongful life...
President Bush seems to be hearing the doctors' complaints. After initially threatening to slam a fast veto on any attempt to reverse the gag rule, the Administration has started backpedaling. Faced with reports from Bush's own pollsters that his abortion policies were starting to cost him support among Republican and independent women voters, the Administration indicated late last month that it was rethinking its position on the gag rule...
Would a victory for the doctors signal a new era of medical activism? Probably not. It is possible that the coalition whipped up to defeat the gag rule could strengthen efforts to revise the Medicare schedule or liberalize fetal-tissue research, but neither of those issues generates the same kind of deep emotions. Most doctors would prefer to leave politics to the politicians, if they would just leave medical decisions to physicians and their patients...