Part IV: The Practice of Medicine is not an Industry

The Constitution --- Plain and Simple

Part IV: The Practice of Medicine is not an Industry

Curtis W. Caine, MD

This column on the Constitution appears in the Medical Sentinel to remind us that it is the unConstitutional (and thus illegal) activities in medicine and all other facets of our lives that have trampled on and outlawed our God-endowed freedom and liberty.

In Parts I, II, and III of this article, we exposed the pitfalls inherent in physicians forming a union. In this Part IV, final section, we nail down why the practice of medicine is not an industry.

If the doctor in a union thinks the boss of his new union (and thus, in reality, his boss) is going to boss management (government, the insurance company), think again with your pointer rotated 180 degrees. Look all around you, much of the time union bosses boss union members --- that is, us doctors. Who is attracted ("makes himself available") to the head of the union, even the doctor labor union? An accomplished practicing professional ethical physician? Hardly. More likely a seasoned, accomplished, full-time organized medicine politico --- maybe even a Jimmy Hoffa. Unions have a proclivity to be run by the mafioso.

And, don't you forget the compulsion of a "closed shop," compulsory union membership. Go along, "Doctor," if you want to get along, Or, you may have to end up driving a taxi, if you want to feed your family. If you think it is bad now, just wait. As comedian Al Jolsen used to say in the 1930s, "You ain't seen nothing, yet."

And yes, I almost failed to mention that since the same power that illegally and unConstitutionally runs the health care system, like the education system, I must point out that the "school to work" initiative envisions that the decreed "counselors," who now advise and urge young folks in their voluntary choice of vocation, will, when the plan is implemented, place workers involuntarily and arbitrarily in a job determined by "aptitude testing." And lifelong continuing "education" will be required. The classes will be an extension of the grade and high school indoctrination programming to insure a docilely (even enthusiastically) accepted continuation of the planned economy to meet the "needs of society." Readers of the Medical Sentinel will recognize this phraseology as a euphemism for the goals of the schemers, power over and control of us. Freedom is anathema to the "social engineers" of "behavioral science" (a.k.a., behavioral engineers of social science). Why does continuing medical education (CME) come to mind? Ever hear of "Goals 2000" or Outcome-Based Education (OBE)? All part of the same dictatorial ball of wax.

Reading over the above, I hope it is obvious and sufficiently emphasized that the only person really necessary in this whole affair is the sick patient. No individual or thing is needed without a sick patient. When the sick patient isn't even ciphered in the calculation, could it be that Nero-like magalomaniacal power and control (and not genuine concern for an ill human) are the object --- and the sick "patient" is the necessary lip service that is paid to use as a maudlin excuse to eructate off-handedly as justification?

All of this is part of the cultural Marxism of the Frankfurt School and Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) --- the destruction of morality, heritage, self-control, discipline, virtues, and the mores of the sanctity of life and marriage --- an inversion of the social order --- a social revolution.(1)

But, a patient is rightfully number one. There is no "health care" without a sick patient. Number two is the physician, but in today's milieu, all of the ancillary baggage consider themselves to be above the doctors, when in fact, the leeches sapping the system are auxiliary to physicians. This is universally attested by the fact a doctor's prescription is necessary to authorize their involvement. The proper pecking order must be reestablished, and physicians must reassert themselves otherwise they will be relegated to an inferior status.

Even if only 10 percent of the frightening scenario described above comes true, that is sufficiently evil to expunge the thought of the practice of medicine being an industry and doctors forming a union. The demise of the practice of private medicine by outside forces is murder, but if directed by a doctor's union from within it is suicide.

Including this topic under my Constitution column is eminently justified because a) the federal Constitution in Article I, Section 8, forbids the federal government to interfere in the practice of medicine, totally. And, b) the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 10, Paragraph 1 makes inviolable the sacred contract between a patient and his physician.

In summation, we must disallow the camel word "industry" to be allowed to stick its nose (further) under the tent, our House of Medicine. The concept that medicine is an industry, with all of its destructive humps and big feet, will lay waste the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine. Patients in America still have (and may continue to have if they act quickly in concert with their physicians) the finest illness care the world has ever known, in spite of all the efforts being made to ruin it.

For the want of a nail the shoe was lost. For the want of a shoe the horse was lost. For the want of a horse the rider was lost. For the loss of a rider the battle was lost. For the loss of the battle the war was lost. For the loss of the war the kingdom was lost. All for the want of a nail.(2)

We must scotch in others the concept the practice of medicine is an industry, and refuse it in our own practices. This one little old word does make a vas deferens (pun intended).

Every time medicine is referred to as an industry (the loss of the nail), doctors present must rise to their feet and forthrightly disallow that categorization to avert the murder of, or rather the suicide of, the noble practice of private medicine.

Dedication to the welfare of our patients requires it. Our status as honored, ethical professionals commands it. Our ethics demand it!

References

1. Atkinson GL. The thread of cultural Marxism. The Register 1998;4(4).
2. Mother Goose rhyme cited by George Herbert (1593-1633).

Dr. Caine is an anesthesiologist in Jackson, Mississippi, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Medical Sentinel.