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Those wacky doctors are at it again. The ABA reported on Friday that Dr. J. Chris Hawk III, a South Carolina surgeon and AMA House of Delegates member says he authored a proposal recognizing a doctor's right to refuse care to a plaintiff's attorney except in emergency situations. "If trial attorneys were given the opportunity to experience the access problems caused by the professional liability crisis, then perhaps they would be willing to change the system," as quoted in Dr. Hawk's resolution.

In addition, Hawk himself stopped providing treatment to plaintiff's attorneys in March of 2003. He is waiting word from the AMA whether his actions are unethical. Regardless of whether his actions are unethical[and they likely are]Hawk is at best ill-informed. It's no secret that whenever the insurance industry takes a beating on its investments, instead of fessing up, they claim there is a "crisis" caused by trial lawyers. The industry did exactly that some 20 years ago when it claimed that a)surgeons were no longer undertaking certain procedures; b) were leaving the state in droves and c) only a cap on damages would stop the bleeding. Well, the "crisis" passed without any significant restructuring of the legal system and this "crisis" will pass as well. And a little fact checking turns up the strangest things - as I reported in a recent post about a an eastern seaboard state claiming that doctors were leaving the state by the thousands. Turned out that the number of doctors had actually increased by nearly one thousand. So don't believe everything you hear from the tort deformers.

And finally, poor Dr. Hawk. A number of physicians angrily denounced his proposal at the AMA meetings - EVEN AFTER HE WITHDREW IT. Thankfully some of the more reasonable minds in the room saw the proposal for what it was - a thinly veiled attempt to discriminate against a certain portion of society. So here's to you Dr. Hawk, for having the courage to go public with your incredibly stupid, small-minded idea. Do everybody a favor and stick to medicine.