PLATFORM : Choosing Risk

As a traditional family doctor, I am repulsed at those who would take both psychological and financial advantage of the terminally ill. Snake-oil specialists abound, and I believe the rush to create laws to protect the desperate terminally ill have occurred because of such obvious unscrupulous activity.

There is a fine line that separates classic quackery and a genuine medical effort to impact an otherwise hopeless medical condition. Outside the 7-to-10 year (Food and Drug Administration) routine for approval, this “genuine medical effort� is just as unlawful as the obvious snake-oil shenanigans.

However, I firmly believe that as intelligent citizens with our lives on the line, we should have the right to make our own decisions about what risks we are willing to take, especially when we know the alternative is death. This may be a time when Big Brother government needs to step aside and let personal freedom reign.