Editor: Majority Leader Bill Frist is not only a United States Senator he is a Medical Doctor. When the doctoral degree of M.D. is conferred upon a med-school graduate, the recipient takes the Hippocratic oath (the oath of Hippocrates – the first doctor of medicine.) This oath is a promise to care for and ensure the wellbeing of the patient to the best of his/her abilities. One that truly lives by this oath can only be a compassionate human being, with genuine concern for caring for ill patients, and who is devoted to the health of all humanity.
When Frist rose to the position of Majority Leader, I held out hope for improved leadership policy in the Senate toward the rights of individuals over the corporate entity. That hope has faded to disappointment as time has passed, as Frist’s record as Majority Leader speaks for itself. He has shown almost without exception that he is a partisan politician and not a statesman for the people.
Although he has since reversed his position on stem cell research (the reversal being the exception mentioned above,) his initial stance was a hard-line partisan one based upon ideology and not science, nor the wellbeing of the many whose health and quality of life could be improved by the results of such research.
He has recently reiterated his threat of the ‘nuclear option’ to modify the operating rules of the Senate regarding filibusters and ultimately reducing protections for the individual. He is also leading a push to offer blanket liability protection for the pharmaceutical industry from consumer – er-um – patient lawsuits in the event of unhealthy vaccination production. So, if the bird flu pandemic materializes, and drug companies manufacture bad batches of vaccine that ultimately harm or kill the vaccinated (similar to the Vioxx scenario,) the individual is left with no recourse against the corporate entity.
If Vice President Dick Cheney weren’t already known as ‘Dr. Evil’, I’d offer the moniker for Frist.
Daniel Wells, Tracy