Posted on 04/21/2011 1:30:02 PM PDT by Stoat
Ousted Surgeon Pushes Back Against Critics
April 20, 2011 — Lazar Greenfield, MD, who resigned Sunday as president-elect of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) after praising semen as a mood-booster for women in an editorial, said that he faced the prospects of protestors at medical meetings if he stayed in office.
Dr. Greenfield's claim appeared in a statement that he emailed today to press outlets, a statement that defends the controversial editorial against charges of being sexist and demeaning to women. He also suggests that his female critics are "vindictive."
"The reports surrounding my resignation...lead readers to conclude that I represent an old-guard generation that represses women in surgery," he wrote. "Nothing could be further from the truth."
He noted that he had a long record of recruiting and promoting women in his field. From 1987 to 2002, Dr. Greenfield chaired the surgery department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he is now an emeritus professor.
Dr. Greenfield's statement reiterates many of the points that the 76-year-old surgeon, textbook author, and inventor of the Greenfield vena cava filter, made Monday in an interview with Medscape Medical News.
'Not Something Demeaning'
The editorial in question, ostensibly celebrating Valentine's Day, appeared in the February issue of Surgery News, an ACS newsletter for which Dr. Greenfield served as editor-in-chief. He announced his resignation from that position in the April issue.
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| Dr. Lazar Greenfield |
Saying that he could no longer remain silent to protect the ACS, Dr. Green stated in today's email that he had written a "light-hearted" opinion piece "for a monthly throwaway newspaper, not a scientific journal." At the same time, he said that the biochemical properties of semen have been documented in peer-reviewed journals, and "represent the remarkable way that Nature promotes bonding between men and women, not something demeaning."
The editorial was meant to amuse readers, but some took offense, leading him to apologize and step down as editor of Surgery News, Dr. Greenfield wrote. "That was not sufficient for some women who convinced the [ACS] leadership that I was unsuited for the Presidency."
"Facing threats of demonstrations by women at any medical meetings that I might attend, I resigned," he said.
'Ruthless and Vindictive'
The New York Times reported that Dr. Greenfield identified 2 groups — the Association of Women Surgeons and the ACS Women in Surgery Committee — as having pressed the ACS Board of Regents for his resignation. Leaders of the 2 groups either declined to speak with Medscape Medical News or did not respond to requests for interview.
A spokesperson for the ACS also declined today to answer questions about the circumstances of Dr. Greenfield's resignation or comment on his email to the press. The medical society had issued a press release Monday announcing Dr. Greenfield's resignation. In that release, the ACS said it wished to honor Dr. Greenfield for "his inestimable contributions to the College and the surgical community" but that it could not be "distracted by any issues that would diminish its focus on improving care of the surgical patient."
Patricia Numann, MD, the current first vice-president-elect of the ACS, was named the society's new president-elect.
In his earlier interview with Medscape Medical News, Dr. Greenfield said the ACS Board of Regents had asked him to step down. He initially resisted, and then relented in order that the editorial "should no longer be a divisive issue in the College."
In today's email to several media outlets, Dr. Greenfield repeated how he had offered to make the controversy over the editorial a professional learning experience by discussing forms of "hidden or unconscious discrimination" with female physicians.
"But that did not fit their agenda," he said. "There should have been a way to reach a less destructive outcome."
To make his point, Dr. Greenfield offered a hypothetical version of his story in which a female editor wrote something offensive to men.
"After they voiced their history of repression, she decided it would be best for the paper if she resigned as editor. But that wasn't enough, and other men's organizations demanded that she resign as the incoming elected president.
"The conclusion is obvious: Men are ruthless and vindictive."
'A Role Model for Supporting Women in Surgery'
The subject of sexism and surgeons is further explored by an article in the April issue of the Annals of Surgery titled "Is There Still a Glass Ceiling for Women in Academic Surgery?" The authors state that although more and more women have entered general surgery and surgical subspecialties, a glass ceiling continues to keep them underrepresented in academic leadership positions. They attribute the glass ceiling to the lack of effective mentors for female surgeons, traditional gender roles, and "sexism in the medical environment."
Sexism, the authors state, can range from "inappropriate sexual bantering to flirtation and sexual advances to pressuring women to participate in sexual relationships."
One of the authors, Diane Simeone, MD, is professionally linked to Dr. Greenfield — she is the Lazar J. Greenfield Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as well as division chief of gastrointestinal surgery. She joined the University of Michigan faculty midway during Dr. Greenfield's tenure as chair of the surgery department.
A story published by the New York Times last week quoted Dr. Simeone as saying that gender bias was never evident with Dr. Greenfield.
"I think it's important to know that [the editorial] is one event and to weigh it against a long career where he has always been completely above board and a role model for supporting women in surgery," she told the New York Times.
Dr. Simeone declined to grant an interview to Medscape Medical News but did confirm that the New York Times quoted her accurately.
What was they name of that old game? Semen says?
It doesn’t take a great deal of thought to realize that semen is loaded with hormones. There is reasonably good scientific basis for this notion.
Would anyone object if we were to find that men having regular sex with women were less depressed?
And, so why did the guy resign?
The truth, scientific fact and the context of statements or actions were all irrelevant to the Stalinists of the 20th century and they remain equally irrelevant to the Stalinists of the 21st century.
Untold millions of people have been executed or have had their lives and/or careers destroyed because they said or wrote something which was absolutely true but was either intentionally taken out of context or was not politically fashionable at the time, as judged by the Left.
Dr. Greenfield obviously loves medicine and would never want to do anything that harms the medical organizations and institutions that he is a part of. If he had not resigned, this one issue would forever be a cloud hanging over his work and the shrill vitriol directed against him would make doing his job next to impossible.
The man is 76 years old, has had a distinguished, landmark career and probably decided that he doesn't need this garbage.
By resigning, he not only says 'sorry' to all offended parties in a very tangible and gracious way, but he very brings the focus away from himself and back where it should be, on the hysterical, obtuse and utterly humorless and politically-driven 'culture' of Leftist militant feminism which has spread as a cancer throughout academia and has metastasized into Medicine as well. He retains the moral high ground while making his detractors look very, very small indeed.
“...That was not sufficient for some women who “... remained upset.
Well, I happen to have something that might improve their mood...
(now running for cover...)
This guy is not some fringe crackpot who’s found a undiscovered cure for cancer or doing surgery in a walkin office. This guy is the real deal and is the inventor of the Greenfield Filter which has saved countless lives from death due to Pulmonary Embolism. In the sports world this guy would be a lot more like Coach K or Joe Torre then Bobby Knight or Bruce Pearl. Just FYI.
I have never heard of anything so weird.There is only one place where semen is supposed to go and we all know where it is...
Agreed. As I’ve stated, he’s had a distinguished, landmark career. It’s his intentionally-humorless and politically-driven detractors who are the kooks in this equation.
Hell hath no fury... Paging Captain Obvious.
Refridgerator magnets are SOLD OUT in every store in town, here!
I guess I am the only one married 40 years....damn wish she knew that...
moron
and
morons
arguing
Semen acts as an anti-depressant
“because semen does contain several mood-altering hormones, including testosterone, oestrogen, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinising hormone, prolactin and several different prostaglandins. Some of these have been detected in a women’s blood within hours of exposure to semen.”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2457
Lazar Greenfield, MD - Want to bet this guy is an oral surgeon!
Remember he is @ Moscow on the Huron. Many Freepers would be shocked @ Ann Arbor.
One more note on this vaulted institution... One of my medical gnomes their notes that if you donate 100 large for medical research, the college takes 25% off the top. Hmmm... you think you they might agree to a flat tax (since that is what it is) or are they more like Tony Soprano and getting their taste?
Semen acts as an anti-depressant
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2457-semen-acts-as-an-antidepressant.html
Would the same be true of male sperm in a male?
Wouldn’t it have some consequences also?
I suspect this is the real danger in anyone’s allowing such ideas to become common. I’ve always suspected that putting male sperm in a male would cause the male system to fight against intrusion creating some kind of andro-immunity reaction.
That said, this thread is definitely a candidate for a Friday Neener Hijacking.
It also cures my migraines and insomnia. The only side effect is a large family.
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I thought that a large family causes migraines and insomnia.
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