Posted on 02/14/2006 1:13:19 PM PST by neverdem
The House of Delegates voted 88-11 yesterday to limit what pediatricians can ask patients about firearms in their homes.
The bill would apply to doctors conducting routine screenings of patients for risks. The physicians would be prevented from asking about firearms if the information is not related to a complaint made by the patient or related to any other patient inquiry.
Doctors who violate the provision could be accused of unprofessional conduct and be declared in violation of state medical licensing regulations.
House committee testimony indicated that the bill was brought after complaints from firearms-rights advocates, one of whose child apparently was asked about firearms by a doctor during an exam.
Specifically, the bill says doctors cannot inquire verbally or in writing about firearms when it's not related to the patient's treatment or in response to a patient inquiry but is only for "gathering statistics or to justify patient counseling."
When the bill was before the House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee, its members suggested asking about guns is part of standard risk assessments and is no different from asking about wearing a bike helmet or using a seat belt.
A policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics "recommends that pediatricians incorporate questions about guns into their patient history taking and urge parents who possess guns to remove them, especially handguns, from the home."
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
I for one would like to see this go national. Doctor's have no right to ask my child about anything not associated with his condition or care. I just wish the bill had more teeth.
The equivalent to that would be asking whether any gun is securely stored, but in any case it's a question for the parents I would think?
/johnny
This bill was put in at the request of VCDL.
LOL. It's queries, not fairys.
Guns are not a medical problem.
This seems like a good thing, but I get uneasy when governments step in to interfere with private business.
Wonder what the doctors did with whatever info they got.
"A policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics 'recommends that pediatricians incorporate questions about guns into their patient history taking and urge parents who possess guns to remove them, especially handguns, from the home.' "
This is a direct result of activities over the past several years by the "Brady Bunch" et. al., operating in collusion with the Center for Disease Control, to manufacture and instill the concept that gun violence is an "epidemic," and thereby induce physicians to solicit firearms ownership information camouflaged as pertinent medical history.
Clever tactic...defacto gun registration and documented lists of firearms owners via their children's medical records. These people are diabolical.
Exactly. It's the parent's job to punch the pediatrician squarely in the face, not the government's.
What gets me is the parents that would actually answer these impertinent, invasive questions. I'd be real quick to tell the doc it was none of his business and had nothing to do with the green stuff in my kid's nose. Infuriating.
They browbeat and castigated the respondents with it.
A policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics "recommends that pediatricians incorporate questions about guns into their patient history taking and urge parents who possess guns to remove them, especially handguns, from the home."
Demonize guns and the parents for owning them, what else?
As a senior, senior citizen I object to being queried at medical facilities with loaded questions in order to determine my mental condition. It's insulting. How about a law against that?
"What gets me is the parents that would actually answer these impertinent, invasive questions. I'd be real quick to tell the doc it was none of his business and had nothing to do with the green stuff in my kid's nose. Infuriating."
Agreed on all counts.
Better to ask, "Doctor, can you advise me how I can avoid becoming a nosy and intrusive, anal-retentive busybody like you?"
I think the parents should show up wearing a pair of pistols. I'd be tempted, but would not execute that plan.
Since medical errors cause more deaths and injuries than gun accidents, they should ask how many times they visited their doctor, to access their risk.
"Parents are extreme gun nuts. Use caution."
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