My Farewell Address To The Duke University Health System

Our policy is to reprint only original material. However, Kendall Conger, a former Emergency Medicine Physician in the Duke University Health System, was fired from Duke University Health System for refusing to get with its DEI program. He has permitted us to reprint his farewell letter to that institution, and, because the letter itself is newsworthy, we have made this very limited exception to our usual rule.

Some precepts are inviolate, non-negotiable, and irreplaceable. America’s preeminent precept was penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence: “all men are created equal.” At Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln reiterated this core belief: “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” It justified the Civil War. Equality of its individuals was America’s foundational proclamation. Martin Luther King, Jr. appealed to it in his “I Have A Dream” speech: “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”

However, Duke advocates replacing the equality of American individuals for the equality of American groups- calling it “equity.” Substituting equity for equality is a paradigm shift and a clash of visions. Individuals are equal, groups are not. The question I posed to Duke setting me at odds with them (and they with me) was: “Please explain why equity is preferable to equality.” Duke refused to answer despite inviting any “questions or concerns” employees had regarding their “Pledge” of allegiance to equity rather than equality. My repeated question given in person and in writing went repeatedly unanswered.

Institutions like Duke, Harvard and other Ivys, Stanford: All have endowments that surpass any need for tuition or grant money.

They are beyond the reach of anyone. They have no need to be fair or responsive to anyone.

They just don't care what anyone, including this ER doctor, says.

The only thing that would make them change is their vanity, if they fell out of the 'cool' group of liberal schools. Or if no kids wanted to go there because it was no longer 'cool'. Or if no professor wanted to work there because it had lost its reputation.

Believe me there are LOTS of other not so famous schools where you would receive a better education in just about anything, including their so called great med school.

Their endowments and the vanity of their alums, faculty, and wannabe students keep them afloat and inflated.

They are walking dead in my mind. Legends in their own minds.

The letter was written by a physician employed by the DUKE University (a private University) Medical School & Health System. He is leaving DUKE, because of DEI. This is amazing that a private, very expensive undergraduate, graduate, medical and law school university has DEI in its central tenets. But then, at one point a certain power faction on the main Duke campus, began to enact having-— the muslim “call to prayer” (in arabic) broadcast to the campus through loudspeakers (like it was Istanbul for crying out loud). This did not last long, and did not happen- because the Iron Dukes— the very wealthy alumni said they would cut off all funds and foundations supporting the Christian school (Methodist originally) were they to proceed having “allah snackbar” wailed from the Duke Chapel tower 5 times a day!

This is not concerning the Univ. of North Carolina (UNC-Chapel Hill) Medical School and Health System- which is controlled by the State of North Carolina Board of Governors headed up by the Chancellor of the University system statewide, all campuses.

These are the kinds of horrible "New Hippocratic Oaths" the good physician was criticizing. I think the good physician is SPOT ON in his criticism (this one happens to be from University of Pittsburgh, but in my experience, is materially the same in places that have adopted this crap:

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Class of 2024 Oath

As the entering class of 2020, we start our medical journey amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a national civil rights movement reinvigorated by the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery. We honor the 700,000+ lives lost to COVID-19, despite the sacrifices of health care workers.

We recognize the fundamental failings of our health care and political systems in serving vulnerable communities. This oath is the first step in our enduring commitment to repairing the injustices against those historically ignored and abused in medicine: Black patients, Indigenous patients, Patients of Color and all marginalized populations who have received substandard care as a result of their identity and limited resources.

Acknowledging the privilege and responsibility that come with being a physician, I take this oath as a call to action to fulfill my duty to patients, to the medical profession and to society.

Thereby, I pledge as a physician and lifelong student of medicine:

I will support and collaborate with my colleagues across disciplines and professions, while respecting the patient’s vital role on the health care team.

I will honor my physical, mental and emotional health so as to not lessen the quality of care I provide.

I will carry on the legacy of my predecessors by mentoring the next generation of diverse physicians.

I will recognize the pivotal role of ethical research in the advancement of medicine and commit myself to endless scholarship with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.

I will care for my patients’ holistic well-being, not solely their pathology. With empathy, compassion and humility, I will prioritize understanding each patient’s narrative, background and experiences while protecting privacy and autonomy.

I will champion diversity in both medicine and society, and promote an inclusive environment by respecting the perspectives of others and relentlessly seeking to identify and eliminate my personal biases.

I will be an ally to those of low socioeconomic status, the BIPOC community, the LGBTQIA+ community, womxn/women, differently-abled individuals and other underserved groups in order to dismantle the systemic racism and prejudice that medical professionals and society have perpetuated.

I will educate myself on social determinants of health in order to use my voice as a physician to advocate for a more equitable health care system from the local to the global level.

I will restore trust between the health care community and the population in which I serve by holding myself and others accountable, and by combating misinformation in order to improve health literacy.

In making this oath, I embrace the ever-changing responsibilities of being a physician and pledge to uphold the integrity of the profession in the clinic and beyond.

Tell me that absolute Bull Sh*t doesn't sound like a Marxist Struggle Session.

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