Doctors playing at politics

Playing politics with women's lives.

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 305 2 JULY 2004 17 T he U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision in May 2004 not to allow overthe-counter sales of the morning-after pill, Plan B, is but one troubling example of the increasing impact of politics and ideology on science and health policy. The agency’s ruling, contrary to recommendations from an external advisory panel and its own scientifi...

Practical institutional politics for doctors.

Stewart Stonewall, MD, a star surgeon, stormed into the OR dressing room, threw his surgical cap and mask in the general direction of the trash container, and sputtered, “Dammit! I told them I’d need a resident to help with that case, but no! Dominie said they all had more important things to do. She’s sure Miss High-and-Mighty since they made her residency director. I’m going to go tell Master...

Doctors, politics and society: historical essays

taking such a large canvas to fill out that it really fails to say anything new and does not even always acknowledge its sources. But the defect is compensated in the discussion of the eating habits and behaviour of the young, a social group less studied in medical history than ought to have been the case. Its last section is titled, rhetorically, 'Do doctors make their patients sick?' and the ...

Selecting tomorrow's doctors--not a level playing field.

Margaret McCartney: Stop playing politics with illegal drug use

It’s been called a revolving door; in reality, it’s a life that never gets off the ground. Drug addiction. Imprisonment. Unemployment. Poverty. Addiction. Imprisonment again. The UKMisuse of Drugs Act 1971makes the possession and supply of a controlled drug illegal and punishable by substantial fines and custodial sentences. The system feeds itself. Almost a fifth of prisoners who have ever use...