Readers' Forum
Academy should not legislate social responsibilities
To the editor:
I am totally in agreement with Dr. Richard Olson's letter published in the FP Report in July. It is not for the AAFP to legislate our social responsibilities. Our responsibility is to educate and not to legislate. It is our responsibility to educate our patients to live a healthy life. At times, this may necessitate the use of drugs.
The use of drugs should be permitted according to the needs of the patient's illness. The needs of patients can vary greatly. Actually, for some patients the use of specific drugs that are presently considered to be illegal may, in fact, be beneficial to that particular patient's health and comfort. Therefore, all drugs should be decriminalized.
As medical doctors, our number-one responsibility should be prescribing appropriate treatment that promotes the patient's health and comfort. The patient's number-one responsibility should be the appropriate use of prescribed treatment that promotes good health and comfort.
If we all accept our social responsibilities, the misuse and abuse of drugs should not occur.
CARL A. RODEN, M.D.
Hamilton, OhioGovernment research dollars should be focused on real illness, helping sick
To the editor:
Three studies were published in three separate peer-reviewed medical journals. All published in February with strikingly similar conclusions: There is no evidence of an association between silicone breast implants and systemic disease. If the recent research findings from Sweden, Canada and Scotland strike a familiar chord, it is because they echo more than 20 other medical studies which have found no association between silicone breast implants and disease.
Yet, in June, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced a bill before Congress calling for more research on silicone breast implants. The fact of the matter is that the research Sen. Boxer is seeking already exists. More to the point, the government should be concerned that precious research dollars get refocused on finding the real causes of the illnesses many women with and without implants are experiencing. What is truly needed is better communication about the existing research, not more scientific study on an issue most of the medical community considers settled.
My concern as a family physician and member of the American Academy of Family Physicians is that women with breast implants are blaming these devices for their suffering and not receiving the proper diagnosis and treatment for their illnesses. As critical players in the medical community, family physicians must work actively to set our national health priorities and to put a halt to medical misinformation.
MICHAEL HUNTER, M.D.
New OrleansScience should explore reasons behind 'tobacco-related illnesses'
To the editor:
The "medical profession" states that X number of deaths each year are "tobacco-related illnesses."
What has happened to science? Is it fair to say that tobacco caused the death of a lung cancer victim if he/she never smoked?
It is said that prohibition was a failure in spite of all the attendant miseries of alcohol. Tobacco might cause a patient to die at 70 rather than 80, but it will not make him a paraplegic at 18.
ERNEST THORSGARD, M.D.
Thief River Falls, Minn.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1998 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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