On January 23, I sent a link to a blog post (detailing my experience as a physician in public service in North Carolina) to the entire NC Legislature. The e-mail text (entitled: Ethics Reform in North Carolina: A Cautionary Tale for Medical Students and Residents) was as follows:
Honorable ladies and gentlemen,
Respectfully, with regards to "ethics reform", the North Carolina Legislature has a whole lot more work to do. You might start with the NC Medical Board and NC State Bar. And then there's the little matter of policing the District Attorneys who pander to one special interest or another . . . and answer to no one.
What happened to me . . . in public service to the state of North Carolina . . . is just WRONG. What happened when I sought help from the "justice" and regulatory systems is even worse. I am going to keep telling this story to anyone who will listen . . . particularly the young (employed/public service) doctors that the business & political leaders of this state treat like dirt under a mill-owner's shoe . . . while our so-called "advocates" wheel & deal with the people doing the stomping. As things stand now, I don't really care anymore how bad it makes you-all look:
http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-duke-boys-and-asheboro-nc.html#links
Rest assured, you ALL look bad. But none more so than the legislators and advocacy organizations who "represented" me.
Mary Johnson, M.D., FAAP
Asheboro, N.C.
I've e-mailed the Legislature en-masse before. And based on that past experience, I sent a back-up individual e-mails to every NC legislator (in bunches of ten to twenty) . . . it took quite a while to get all of those addresses loaded into my address book.
Since the debate over a physician's role in executions is raging (I support capital punishment, I oppose physicians participating in any way), I attached an addendum to the individual e-mails. The text is as follows:
This e-mail is being sent directly to your e-mail Inbox as a back-up. Based on past experience, I do not trust the General Assembly's e-mail delivery system. I apologize for any inconvenience.
In the wake of the NC Medical Board's recent "non-decision" regarding the NC law that requires physicians to "attend" executions, I would like legislators to consider the following post as well:
http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2007/01/is-a-doctor-in-execution-chamber.html#links
Thank you for your attention,
Mary Johnson, M.D., FAAP
I got a few responses . . . mostly from legislative assistants.
Pricey Harrison seems to be paying attention . . . she e-mailed to ask a few questions . . . and mentioned my participation in the local blogs (which, to her credit, she participates in and reads).
As per usual, I've heard not one word out of my own Randolph County representatives, Harold "I have to live in this town" Brubaker (my only memorable exchange with him being after I called him on his failure to address me as "Dr." in correspondence. He countered that I did not address him as "Speaker" . . even though he wasn't the Speaker anymore), or newbie Pat Hurley (who lives just down the street from my Mom). Ms. Hurley, in particular, is probably too vulnerable to the local political machine.
You see, in Asheboro, the first rule of citizenship is that you have to go along to get along.
;-) Nod.
Yesterday, I got this from Marc Basnight, President of the NC Senate:
Dear Dr. Johnson:
Thank you so much for your recent letter regarding the participation of physicians in the performance of lethal injections. I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to write and for informing of your concerns.
Please be assured that your views and concerns will be given serious consideration. It is my sincere desire to serve the people of our great State to the best of my ability, and to do so, I must be kept informed. You have contributed greatly in that regard, and I do appreciate the information. Your interest and input is very important in order for those of us in the General Assembly to know and be aware of what North Carolina’s citizens are thinking and feeling.
Again, I appreciate your taking the time and effort to write and share your views with me. Please feel free to write to me whenever any issue of interest to you is brought before the North Carolina General Assembly.
With best regards, I am
Sincerely yours,
Marc Basnight
Please note, that my position on how executions are done in this state was a secondary consideration to the heart of the reason I spent so much time on e-mailing the entire NC legislature. But Basnight did not say one word about the primary reason I e-mailed NC legislators . . that being my experience as a public service physician in North Carolina. He just ignored it.
It's very similar to the responses I used to get from former (please God may it stay that way) Senator John Edwards . . . he who has so many great new ideas for healthcare (not).
Over at Capital Beat, Mark Binker has offered thorough coverage of the death penalty dance that "the honorables" are doing this week. Everyone (including the Medical Board) seems determined to be collegially sidestep the issue, and is working very hard to dump the details (where the devil is found) it on someone else . . . without resolving anything.
This morning, the N&R reported that the Council of State approved a new execution protocol by voice vote. Never mind that the protocol still violates cannons of medical ethics (by putting a doctor in the middle), and actually appears to increase the participation of the doctor in the lethal injection procedure. From the N&R article:
The execution procedure approved by the council on Tuesday appears to increase the role of a doctor. Instead of tasking a nurse and medical technician with monitoring an inmate's vital signs, the revised protocol requires a physician to monitor "the essential body functions of the condemned inmate" and notify the warden if the inmate shows signs of "undue pain and suffering."
For his part, "no opinion" Governor Mike Easley said he expected the overall question of what role doctors should play will be litigated for some time before ending up before the Legislature.
Like I said, the law that put doctors in the middle of executions is a bad law. Fix the law. It's not rocket science.
At least one legislator is flustered: "I have never seen legislators run as fast away from taking on their legislative responsibilities as I have today," said Rep. Paul Luebke, D-Durham, after the panel decided to wait for Tuesday's council meeting before discussing a proposal for an execution moratorium."I don't understand ... why the General Assembly would not want to clarify the statute if we have the medical board saying a doctor can't participate even if the needle is put in improperly."
I feel for Representative Luebke, I really do. You see, I've had nine years of the jurisdictional dodge . . . of state officials and legislators ducking their responsibilities . . . or of flat out ignoring my case . . . a case borne of seeing everything I had worked for destroyed because I did my duty as a licensed physician . . . a case borne of so-called public servants ignoring and breaking . . . or failing to enfore the laws that the legislature makes.
I'm also one of the 20,000 people who filed complaints with the Attorney General's office last year (many of those complaints being about healthcare) . . . only to be told that the state of North Carolina couldn't do anything about "non-profit" hospital executives lying under Oath (even when the state licenses and helps fund the "non-profit").
It's total horse-hockey.
But it's the way that the laws "the honorables" make really work in this state.
And it's far from "honorable".
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