y ^ Juneil ^ing 0r ea|j 1 (AP) Opinion Nortli ; ° f nucle ls ures o Period Gnomic n § of fc; The Battalion Page 7 • Thursday, June 24, 2004 The doctor ain’t in doctors justified in exercising their right not to treat malpractice suit lawyers lately l 'orth t dsta In >tes cona 3 e a Hire] stability | North ij s to cow Syria, ad irtsofJ ogy isarj MIKE WALTERS though never proven, legend has it that after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said, "I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." After decades of being subjected to frivolous lawsuits and soaring malpractice insurance premiums, it appears that lawyers have prodded the sleeping giant one too many times. In last week’s meeting of the American Medical Association, Dr. J. Chris Hawk proposed that all doctors refuse treatment for attorneys involved in medical malpractice cases. aspire to fth aredi istitutior )f mall'; to a ■ifhich cfc a I outb Though the proposal was denied, doctors are already adopting !is practice on their own. In South Carolina a surgeon dropped a tient when he found out her husband was a trial lawyer, and in ississippi a plastic surgeon refused to treat the daughter of a state vmaker because of his stand on malpractice suits. Though the doctors practicing or sympathetic to this practice have said they would treat these people in emergencies, many [mericans nevertheless find it appalling. Dan Lambe of Texas atch, a consumer research and advocacy group, called it “vigi- inte-style behavior for what appears to be an extremist group of ctors... looking to punish innocent patients and their attorneys ho help them exercise their constitutional rights." It is indeed a constitutional right to bring suit against Someone you believe to have wronged you. However, is every American’s constitutional right to fuse to live as a slave. Though doctors have osen a profession in which their job is to help ople, it is still their right to choose who the; - j ;ish to help — they are not slaves to anyone V aiming to need their services but offering only * rm in return. “If somebody takes a position that is \try deleterious to your welfare, you have right not to do business with him," said . Clinton "Rick" Miller, who refused to at the president of the state’s trial lawyers asso- ation for elective surgery because he bbied against limits on malpractice wsuits. "He's one of the reasons 1 we $84,000 medical practice pre- iums even though I've never had a alpractice judgment against me in njy life.†Though lawyers are blaming the iiicredible cost of insurance premiums on insurance companies rather than the cases they bring that make insurance necessary, the facts are still against lawyer innocence. The Jury Verdict Research, which tracks personal injury claims, reported in 2002 that 30 per cent of all claims filed that year were closed without any payment being made and, of those that went to a jury, patients filing the suit lost more than 82 percent of the time. Doctors who win cases filed against them still have to pay for their legal defense, which averaged almost $92,000 in cases that went to trial, and more than $16,000 in cases that were dropped, the AMA said. This means that anyone who tries to take his doctor to court, without any valid reason or case behind him, is still able to burn $16,000 of his doctor’s money. That’s more than most students make in an entire year wasted on legal fees. And because lawyers ask for millions of dollars in damages, doctors shell out even more of their hard-earned money to malpractice insurance, even though they may never make a mistake. While many Americans may look at doctors and say “They make a lot of money, they can afford $16, 000,†people need to put themselves in the doctors’ shoes and ask them selves if they would appreciate being the victim of such cir cumstances. Call it the Golden Rule or Karma, doctors are final ly fighting back against lawyers and should continue to do so until the system changes. Though people like Lambe are outraged by such “vigilantism,†there’s nothing wrong with taking justice into your own hands when you do so within your rights. In fact we should be proud to know that whenever the law fails to protect its citizens Americans still have the conviction and the courage to see that justice is done on their own by punishing those wrongly hurting others. Lawyers must stop chasing ambulances, judges should stop giving ridiculous awards and politicians should start backing the only people trained to save their lives. Doctors devote their lives to protecting and saving the lives of their fellow citizens — it’s time people stopped hurting them and gave them the respect and honor they deserve. Mike Walters is a senior psychology major. Graphic by Tony Piedra en are MAIL CALL erry offers more than imply a Bush alternative /I response to Cody Sains June 21 column: ggedwPt. Sain, I have read many of your I ggg cc umns, and they all reflect the same ' ®pe of opinion, that of a child who has nt /er held an M-16. It's obvious you have lived very little, and everything you believe has been taught to you. Also, your lack of sdfrek iiowledge in the history of politics is dras- ,, tically hurting your points. ^ IlHom Eisenhower to Reagan, our nation's political party structure changed ^"featlv. At the turn of the 20th century, as s ^tBe Democratic Party represented the ' aIm r kin g man ’ hence the donkey. The ovec Republican Party represented big busi- iur ^ ness, hence the elephant. Both parties tttiel ;hpd liberal and conservative facets. However, the Democrats were the more Minservative party. also |fs been only in recent years that the h hi S: pLrty system has been based on morals, overalls j s the reason why many people witli ! switched parties from the 50s to the 80s, last "'iijcluding long-time U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, iscripfion't forget that our nation's most liberal ting piesident, Abraham Lincoln, was a icchi. Republican and one of the most conser- had Native nominees, William Jennings Bryan, s a Democrat. The term ‘Yellow-dog Democrat’ became pular during the Great Depression, en many men who wanted to work je dcjiuld not. The Republican President judge Hoover did nothing to help these men get !e a back to work. I can fully understand why Here was a point in our history when a jr, wan would vote for a yellow dog who would help them feed their family over a man who would let them starve. Also, I can see why you can relate to this personality type, because you are of the same. As soon as it was obvious Kerry would receive the nomination, you began attacking him, criticizing his flip-flopping on issues and being a pro-choice Catholic. As an avid viewer of Fox News, your lack of intellect was obvious because you were merely repeating what you heard on the most biased news network. This means it does not matter who received the nomina tion, you would have attacked him. I bet back in 1996, when you were probably in high school and I was serving my country, had you been old enough you would have voted for a yellow dog instead of Bill Clinton. Understand that the root of much hypocrisy is criticism of others what one subconsciously does not like about himself. Let me assure you, there are some anti- Bush people who would be undecided on whom to vote for had Dean received the nomination. Kerry brings to the Democratic ticket a trait that has been lacking in the party since Lyndon B. Johnson: a tough, central leader. This trait is obviously lacking in the current administration, hence Bush constantly reminding the public that he is in charge. Also, I admire and trust any politician “man†enough to admit he made a mis take. You are right that no administration would be impeccable, but I'd trust a pres ident who would act in a way he thinks is right, rather than stubbornly sticking to his initial stance. Jeff Lack Class of 2006 Comparing President Bush to a dog insulting In response to a June 22 mail call: While all opinions are surely welcome, it is inappropriate to compare anyone to a dog, much less the president of the United States. If you want to exchange anthropomor phic slander with your close friends, that is your business. However, submitting this as a serious response to a column is sim ply uncalled for. I have had the opportunity to meet Barbara Bush on a number of occasions, and I'm sure she would have some words with anyone who speaks ill of any of her boys. The facts are that the economy is improving, interest rates are low and gas prices are again lowering. If the country needs a change, as Mr. Powell suggested, it should be in the char acter, honesty and integrity of the media and its citizens. Brian Foley Class of2007 student senator Food Services’ summer options fewer and fewer I would like to start off by saying that I was deeply disappointed in the choice and the quality of the food provided at the beginning of the first summer session. I was, however, willing to live with the lack of choices because it was summer and I was willing to concede that it would not be as busy. Today, however, I walked down to the C-store and found out that the weekend hours were scratched out. Now, I don't know if this is meant for just this past weekend or every weekend, but I am very upset. I feel that the Texas A&M food servic es have misled me and provided an infe rior product. I have absolutely no desire to eat at the golf course snack bar or Stone Willy’s Pizza every single weekend. I hardly think that could be considered healthy. The problem was bad enough when the C-store was open, but now it is downright shameful. I am not one to make ground less accusations, and I am not going to speculate, but merely state the facts. 1) As a student I was left to speculate about what dining areas would be open during the summer. 2) For some reason known only to God, food services has chosen to locate the bulk of food services as far away from FHK as humanly possible. 3) Unbeknownst to anyone, they have now closed down the C-store on the week ends for an unknown period of time. 4) Finally, the choices that are offered are generally unhealthy and extremely repetitive. I feel like a prisoner forced to eat the same gruel every day. To sum all of this up, I feel that I have been deceived into purchasing a number of meals that I now clearly do not want. Zachary Hunt Class of 2006 No Sept. 11 link between Saddam and al-Qaida In response to George Deutsch’s June 23 column: One of the primary goals of a journalist should be to clearly support arguments with sound reasoning, a consistent theme and trustworthy sources of information. Time and time again, however, I read opinion pieces in The Battalion that fail to meet such standards. Mr. Deutsch's col umn (June 23) is one such example. Mr. Deutsch dismisses two highly reputable newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post, but then resorts to quoting an obscure conservative Web site (townhall.com) to make his point. If you're going to present the media as biased, don't use a Web site that is itself biased toward one political bent as your sole counter-evidence. It's just not a con vincing approach. Mr. Deutsch later concludes that "the ties between al-Qaida and Iraq are there" after a series of equally unconvincing arguments. For one, he alludes to circum stantial evidence that the 9-11 Commission didn't feel worthy of includ ing in its interim report. If the commission itself failed to see the importance of such circumstantial evidence, then why should the media have reported it? Mr. Deutsch's other "evidence" include an unconfirmed Czech intelligence report and the fact that Saddam and bin Laden both had a mutu al dislike of America. Combined with quotes by Cheney about not knowing if there is a direct Iraqi link to Sept. 11 and Mr. Deutsch's one admis sion that there is no indisputable direct link, how can anybody say with a straight face that Iraq had anything to do with Sept. 11? If the Bush administration itself does not believe there was a direct link, then why is that link still being used as justification for war? Robert Powell Graduate Student The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 200 words or less and include the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style and accuracy. Letters may be submitted in per son at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid stu dent ID. Letters also may be mailed to: 015 Reed McDonald, 1111 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-1111. Fax: (979) 845- 2647 Email: maiicall@thebattalion.net —Michael Moore April 2004 BOWLING cm rlf-iAH "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ’insurgents’ or ’terrorists’ or ’The Enemy.’ They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow •— and they will win."