OH YES YOU CAN!  And in fact, I recommend it.

I heard another physician throw up his hands this week, while surrendering to those who would suppress his right to practice medicine his way. This is sad to me and un-American. We don’t live in communist China or a socialist country (well, we actually do) where the right and privilege of recource is just a dream.

The practice of medicine has been stolen from those of us who have earned the privilege of caring for people. It was stolen one regulation at a time while complacent doctors who lived before me threw up their hands and said, “You can’t fight city hall.”

I know of no other profession that is so regulated with the threat of lawsuit or loss of license as the field of medicine. And at what cost? Many physicians are leaving for retirement. Many of our sons and daughters are choosing to practice other professions. And, although those in the know may say that the medical school applications are up, take a minute to look at the applicants.

I went to residency with Drs. Waber, Anderson, Dean, Duffy, and Watson. Now the rural residency I completed is inundated by names of people I can’t even pronounce and foreign tongues you can’t understand.

Yes, we can fight “city hall.” And we must.  If your rights are not worth fighting for, then perhaps you should relocate to another country where soldiers haven’t paid such a great price for those rights that you are so readily giving away.