Ethics Violations: Canadian Medical Association exits World Medical Association

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) has left the World Medical Association (WMA) because of ethics failings of its new President, Dr Leonid Eidelman. Apparently Eidelman's inaugural speech was in parts plagiarised from content produced, among others, by Dr Christopher Simpson, a former President of the Canadian Medical Association. As far as Eidelman is concerned, he says his speech was written by speech writers, and he was unaware of the plagiarism.

Let me just say that Eidelman ought to resign, whether or not his speech was written by others. He delivered plagiarized content as if it was his own, so the fact that he used speech writers is irrelevant, he remains responsible for what he says. The WMA did not force Eidelman to resign, it did not fire him.

The thing with the WMA is this: ethics failings are kind of power for the cause. That's what it does. It is a morally bankrupt organization, and it has been a morally bankrupt organization for a long time.  Its plagiarizing current President, by comparison, nearly falls into the category of 'good guy'.

In 1992 it wisely chose to elect a Nazi war criminal as its President, Dr Hans Sewering. Sewering was reportedly a member of the SS and the Nazi party. He signed death warrants for some 900 children with disabilities who were then murdered in a Nazi extermination centre.

In 2010 the WMA elected Ketan Desai to is President. He was found guilty by the High Court of Delhi of corruption and abuse of power in 2001.  The High Court ordered his removal from his job as President of the Medical Council of India. Investigators had charged him with seeking a massive bribe from a private medical college in return for approving admissions of students for the 2010-2011 academic year.

So, the WMA has a knack for picking the wrong people. The only thing that is odd about the CMA's timing is that they chose to resign their membership from the WMA over a comparably trifling matter, namely a vanity speech giving by its incoming President. Desai's failings were apparently of no concern at the time to the CMA.

The CMA's President, Dr Gigi Osler is quoted in the Toronto Star newspaper, '“We must continue to hold ourselves to a high standard of professionalism and ethical behaviour,” said Osler. “We are going to strive to uphold honesty, humility, integrity and prudence.”

This, of course, is the same medical association whose views on professionalism are akin to that of a trade union rather than that of a proud professional association. Dr Jeff Blackmer, the Director of the Canadian Medical Association’s Ethics Office wrote on behalf of the association that medical doctors are neither obliged to provide abortion services, nor are they obliged to transfer patients on to doctors they know will provide abortions to women seeking one. He holds the same view on medical aid in dying, and - one wonders - on what other medical services. Of course, doctors are monopoly providers of this service, abortion is legal in Canada, and pregnant women are entitled to receive that service free of charge (ie publicly funded) from said monopoly providers. The CMA's take is that the refusal to provide or transfer is perfectly compatible with professional conduct, when, by definition, that isn't the case.

Apparently Eidelman and Blackmer got into a bit of a bunfight over Eidelman lecturing the CMA over its support for medical aid in dying. Blackmer rightly criticises Eidelman for claiming that the CMA thought assisted dying is comparable in terms of its seriousness to prescribing antibiotics.

It appears to be the case that the WMA has again managed to appoint a reactionary doctor with questionable ethics as its President. One does wonder why anyone would take too seriously any longer its pronouncements on matters medical ethics. In its conduct it really is not dissimilar to the Roman Catholic Church. There is a lot of hand waving and posturing, but when it comes to actual conduct, it disqualifies itself as an arbiter of matters ethics.

So, kudos to the CMA for leaving the WMA; even though the point in time is ill-chosen, it was a long overdue decision.

Health Care - Not an Issue for Major Political Parties in Canada's Federal Election Campaigns

It's a somewhat surreal election campaign that is currently in full swing in Canada. It stays clear of issues of vital importance to Canada and Canadians. There we have a rapidly ageing population and really we need a national seniors strategy that accounts for that. One can nearly feel sorry for the Canadian Medical Association here. The association tried hard during the last few months to make this issue an issue in the current election campaign. It was rightly supported by sympathetic journalists such as the Globe and Mail's Andre Picard. Yet, for all those efforts, the issue gained no traction with any of the major parties. Our federal leaders' heads remain firmly planted deep in sand, with no effort made to look ahead and address major, dramatic challenges to our health care system. Instead we were treated to a good two weeks' worth of Mike Duffy and the usual corrupt shenanigans that are a hallmark of Prime Minister Harper's political operation.

I spoke yesterday to a journalist interviewing me on the state of federal and provincial planning with regard to the implementation of our Supreme Court's decision  on assisted dying. He asked why the political parties, in my estimation, haven't taken up this issue in their respective campaigns? He was puzzled that an issue that enjoys broad support among Canadians is ignored by the major political parties. What was I to say other than 'I don't get it either'. A new poll, released today, confirms what I told the journalist yesterday, it is not only the case that the vast majority of Canadians want to see the decriminalization of assisted dying, it is also the case that the vast majority of conservative party voters supports the decriminalization. 77% of Canadians generally support decriminalization and a whopping 67% of conservative party voters and 84% of NDP voters. This does beg the question why none of the mainstream parties have leveled with their supporters and the general voting public on how they would implement the Supreme Court judgment. I do still wonder why Prime Minister Harper appointed an advisory panel stacked with discredited anti-choice activists, given that the majority of his party's supporters is in favor of decriminalization. Why on earth would he stack his panel with folks known to be opposed to decriminalization? I sometimes wonder about the credit that is given to Mr Harper who is hailed as a master political tactician. His whole election campaign seems a shambles to me.