Sunday, May 6, 2007

I Don't Like This Guy

Here's a piece about the $12 million/year Ob/Gyn.

His defense is essentially that "Yall are just haters." But that's not it. It's not his money that I detest, it's his disregard for medical ethics in acquiring his mammon.

One might argue that the very notion of plastic surgery, when performed for purely aesthetic reasons, is not in keeping with the Hippocratic Oath. I won't go there right now, but it's clear that Dr. Matlock's aggressive marketing of his techniques, and worse, his monopolistic control over them, violate these principles:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

Medicine is not meant to be proprietary.


A few related points:
An interesting piece on the peculiar economics of healthcare, and where doctors fit in.

A related tidbit.