Doctor tells Obama supporters to f*** off

it is not a right · 2010-04-02T10:24:40-04:00

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-mount-dora-doctor-tells-patients-go-aw20100401,0,5593120.story MOUNT DORA — A doctor who considers the national health-care overhaul to be bad medicine for the country posted a sign on his office door telling patients who voted for President Barack Obama to seek care "elsewhere." "I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it." The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years." Estella Chatman, 67, of Eustis, whose daughter snapped a photo of the typewritten sign, sent the picture to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the Orlando Democrat who riled Republicans last year when he characterized the GOP's idea of health care as, "If you get sick, America … Die quickly." Chatman said she heard about the sign from a friend referred to Cassell after his physician recently died. She said her friend did not want to speak to a reporter but was dismayed by Cassell's sign. "He's going to find another doctor," she said. Cassell may be walking a thin line between his right to free speech and his professional obligation, said William Allen, professor of bioethics, law and medical professionalism at the University of Florida's College of Medicine. Allen said doctors cannot refuse patients on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability, but political preference is not one of the legally protected categories specified in civil-rights law. By insisting he does not quiz his patients about their politics and has not turned away patients based on their vote, the doctor is "trying to hold onto the nub of his ethical obligation," Allen said. "But this is pushing the limit," he said. Cassell, who has practiced medicine in GOP-dominated Lake County since 1988, said he doesn't quiz his patients about their politics, but he also won't hide his disdain for the bill Obama signed and the lawmakers who passed it. In his waiting room, Cassell also has provided his patients with photocopies of a health-care timeline produced by Republican leaders that outlines "major provisions" in the health-care package. The doctor put a sign above the stack of copies that reads: "This is what the morons in Washington have done to your health care. Take one, read it and vote out anyone who voted for it." Cassell, whose lawyer wife, Leslie Campione, has declared herself a Republican candidate for Lake County commissioner, said three patients have complained, but most have been "overwhelmingly supportive" of his position. "They know it's not good for them," he said. Cassell, who previously served as chief of surgery at Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares, said a patient's politics would not affect his care for them, although he said he would prefer not to treat people who support the president. "I can at least make a point," he said. The notice on Cassell's office door could cause some patients to question his judgment or fret about the care they might receive if they don't share his political views, Allen said. He said doctors are wise to avoid public expressions that can affect the physician-patient relationship. Erin VanSickle, spokeswoman for the Florida Medical Association, would not comment specifically. But she noted in an e-mail to the Sentinel that "physicians are extended the same rights to free speech as every other citizen in the United States." The outspoken Grayson described Cassell's sign as "ridiculous." "I'm disgusted," he said. "Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, ‘Do no good.' If this is the face of the right wing in America, it's the face of cruelty. … Why don't they change the name of the Republican Party to the Sore Loser Party?"

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16 years ago 04/04/2010 3:50pm EDT

re: somtimes I wonder

somtimes I wonder wrote:
Medical Student/ wrote:
The AMA can go to hell. Their code of ethics is neither legally nor morally binding.
The AMA represents those doctors stupid enough to believe Obamacare would not destroy the medical profession in America. The AMA is as destructive and dysfunctional as the AARP or teachers unions--an absolute cesspool of socialist insanity.

Speaking of stupid doctors, turns out this particular doctor admitted in an interview yesterday that he doesn't even know what's in the health care bill. But he put up the sign anyway. Uh huh.

http://tinyurl.com/yjogn9b

I'd be laughing, except that this doctor seems pretty representative of the frothing Homo-ignoramuses populating this thread.

Just goes to show that there's a difference between the ability to speak words and the ability to put some thought behind them.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 3:51pm EDT

re: it is not a right

Some people can't accept change.The old health system was a farce.

Whether this one is any better.? Who knows but there's not much point in shooting the messenger before the message is delivered.

This Doctor is not going to convince too many that he has an interest in their wellbeing but rather some self serving unresolved issue with his political affiliation.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 3:53pm EDT

re: Medical Student/

Medical Student/ wrote:
It's not rationalization. It's logic.

No, logic is not subject to your whims.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 3:54pm EDT

re: russian

Morality is not subjective. The statement that "morality is subjective" is itself a declaration of an absolute.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 4:06pm EDT

re: Wendell Gee

Wendell Gee wrote:
No, logic is not subject to your whims.

In order to support your accusation that I am rationalizing, you first have to prove that my justification for accepting Medicare is invalid. To simply dismiss the argument as rationalization without first addressing the subject matter is cowardly evasion.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 4:23pm EDT

re: Medical Student/

Medical Student/ wrote:
Therefore, it is moral for doctors to accept Medicare as recompensation even if they are philosophically opposed to government involvement.

I'll reply to your other post by citing this one. If you believe that government involvement is philosophically objectionable, accepting money from a prime example of such involvement IS, in fact, hypocrisy.

Tolerating government involvement when it profits you morally weak-minded.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 4:24pm EDT

re: Wendell Gee

Wendell Gee wrote:
Tolerating government involvement when it profits you * morally weak-minded.

* -is- morally weak-minded.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 4:30pm EDT

re: russian

russian wrote:
Subjugate physicians? Where in health care reform does it say that? I mean I'm not crazy about the health care bill, but this physician has crossed a serious line.
And no, a free agent does not have the right to choose who he wants to do business with. A private landlord cannot refuse to do business with somebody because of their race, for example.
And before you get all high and mighty on me, I am a senior pre-med. Will be a M1 next year. Am looking forward to practicing medicine just as much now as I was pre-March 23.

Russia will be a Net Oil importer by 2025.

Russia will be majority islamic by 2026.

Putin will have to retire sometime before then.

Russia can either side with the west or watch itself be destroyed from within, and then genocided by an alliance of China and its ethnic Muslims.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 4:40pm EDT

re: Mary Poppins

What does Russia have to do with this? Why would China ally with Muslims to destroy Russia when they already oppress Muslims? What would China do with Russia? What's wrong with you?

16 years ago 04/04/2010 5:31pm EDT

re: Medical Student/

Medical Student/ wrote:
Morality is not subjective. The statement that "morality is subjective" is itself a declaration of an absolute.

Well, I would have agreed with you, but the actions of this doctor, that you defend, are very clearly and unarguably against my morals. If they are in accordance with another's morals (yours and the doctor's), then morality must be subjective.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 6:53pm EDT

re: Medical Student/

Medical Student/ wrote:
Morality is not subjective. The statement that "morality is subjective" is itself a declaration of an absolute.

Are you some kind of nihilist?

16 years ago 04/04/2010 7:07pm EDT

re: confused...

confused... wrote:
Medical Student/ wrote:
Morality is not subjective. The statement that "morality is subjective" is itself a declaration of an absolute.
Are you some kind of nihilist?

They're nihilists, Donny, nothing to be afraid of.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 11:14pm EDT

re: it is not a right

He's an American hero!

I wish I could ask people who they voted for and not deal with them at work.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 11:44pm EDT

re: Medical Student/

Medical Student/ wrote:
Morality is not subjective. The statement that "morality is subjective" is itself a declaration of an absolute.

Sorry, but the statement that "morality is objective" is a subjective opinion.

16 years ago 04/04/2010 11:49pm EDT

re: it is not a right

The AMA should put the guy on notice and threaten to yank his licence. My 70 year old right wing grandad, who is a doctor said that. He says that there is no place for extreme politics like this in the hipocratic oath.

16 years ago 04/05/2010 12:52am EDT

re: not so smart....

not so smart.... wrote:
The AMA should put the guy on notice and threaten to yank his licence. My 70 year old right wing grandad, who is a doctor said that. He says that there is no place for extreme politics like this in the hipocratic oath.

The AMA doesn't control licensure and your grandad is an old fool. The whole point of a free economy is that it prevents fools like your grandad from f***ing up the lives of others.

16 years ago 04/05/2010 4:44am EDT

re: Medical Student/

Medical Student/ wrote:
Morality is not subjective. The statement that "morality is subjective" is itself a declaration of an absolute.

True, the statement "morality is subjective" is an absolute, but since it is a meta-statement about morality, and not a predicate of any moral code, its being an absolute doesn't invalidate/validate its subject.

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