Posted on 07/30/2014 12:46:11 PM PDT by Q-ManRN
As a pediatrician, I have one, straightforward professional obligation: to safeguard and support the health and wellbeing of my patients. In my case, those patients are children, but you could change the age range of the people coming into the office and apply that statement to any medical provider.
Asking about guns in the house is no exception. When I ask parents if there are firearms in the home, and if so how they are secured, it is for the sole purpose of keeping their children safe.
Physicians in Florida are being threatened with a law that, if enacted, will seriously hamper their ability to do their jobs. The Firearms Owners' Privacy Act, passed in 2011, would subject medical providers to fines and a potential loss of licensure for asking patients about gun ownership or recording that information in the medical record if it is not “relevant to the patient's medical care or safety.”
Gun advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association have long opposed the AAP’s efforts to strengthen gun laws. But the Florida law has no effect on gun ownership or access. Its insidious reach enters into medical offices and chokes off the free-speech rights of the people trying to work there.
As much as the NRA and its ilk want to deny it, having a gun in the home is a risk factor for serious injury or death. Acknowledging that fact is not the same thing as taking the gun away. The Florida law seeks to “protect” gun owners from even having to be informed about truths they’d prefer to ignore, and seeks to cast medical providers in an unflattering light for having the temerity to question them.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Or, “You know that thing *you* do during my prostate exam? Well, *I* wear a size 12 shoe, and I’m tempted to plant it ... “.
“When I ask parents if there are firearms in the home, and if so how they are secured, it is for the sole purpose of keeping their children safe.”
Since when do doctors have anything to do with child safety? They are supposed to be doctors. Doctors exist to diagnose and treat ailments, not to go out of their training element and work in the “field of child safety.” They are unqualified by reason of lack of training and credentials to be involved in “child safety” at all. For them to do so is committing fraud.
But now this whole issue is burgeoning. As a senior citizen, I have to deal with a phalanx of questions regarding my sanity, my interest in harming myself, and the number of times (if any) I have fallen in the past x number of months. I just had a physical. These questions were on a form I was disposed to fill out and sign, they were asked by the nurse, and again by the doctor, and all of it is transcribed into your “medical history” electronically.
So not only do you have to be wary of gun questions, but also mental health inquiries. I simply don’t answer any of it. It’s none of their business. And if the time comes when my current physician gets truculent about any of it, he’s lost a patient.
We all went to public schools. But my kids went to schools on base almost their entire time in school. I was heavily involved (when not deployed) in what went on at school too. At times I would get notes from the teachers because the kids would be “questioning” authority. Usually it was something stupid. The school uniform fight in Georgia was pretty intense but we won that. Out of Kansas, Georgia, Hawaii and Colorado I’d say Georgia schools were the worst and Kansas the best.
It’s bad enough MDs advise us on diet, yet have little to no training in nutrition. It’s bad enough MDs prescribe drugs, yet have no training in pharmacology. MDs are trained in disease diagnosis and surgery. They treat but do not cure.
You wouldn’t ask a firearms instructor about your family’s health. So don’t ask an MD about firearms safety.
Perfectly framed reply!
Russell Saunders is the ridiculously flimsy pseudonym of a pediatrician in New England. He has a husband, son, daughter, cat and dog, though not in that order. He enjoys reading, running and cooking. He lives in fear of James Franco's legion of fans. He can be contacted at blindeddoc using his Gmail account. Twitter types can follow him @russellsaunder1.
Does he have a right to ask about swimming pools? FAR more children die in backyard pools.
“And we have e the right to Tel you NYFB as well.”
Yeah, I have thought about that too, but in retrospect, it’s easier to give them a heartfelt lie instead. Because pissing them off just guarantees you get on somebody’s list.
It’s like officer: “do you have any weapons in your vehicle?”
citizen: “weapons? Why would anyone want a weapon in their car?”
Can't reason with people like that. Therefore it becomes a matter of who has the power.
I wonder if he ever counsels any of his patients that buggery can be harmful to their health.
the author is a demonstration of the “Christ complex” and thinks he knows who best everyone else should live their lives.
This is pure anti-civil rights on the part of this so called “dr.”
what other civil rights does this dr. oppose?
What an idiot of a doctor. More children die from drowning in pools and poisoning from chemicals. Does he ask if they have a pool and locked gates. Does he ask if there are medications and drugs, chemicals, gasoline, power lines, pitbulls, sharp knives, baseball bats, unsafe prescription drug bottle tops. Lastly how good a doctor is he as more children die from malpractice than gun shots!!!!!!!!!
If doctors are offering them, it could be hard for kids to turn them down.
You forgot buckets of water....just sayin’
Any doctor asking or directing his staff to ask me political questions will get fired on the spot.
So, I got most of it right. He’s a fag and he’s got a “husband”. It’s sickening how much power our society has given aberrations of nature like him.
” I questioned him on why I was required to be there and then asked to leave. He said it is a privacy issue. “
Likely he was going to ask her if she was being molested and felt your presence would keep her from answering honestly.
“And we have the right to Tel you NYFB as well.”
Saying anything other than “no” means “yes”.
The following are also hazards at home when present: a kitchen knife, a chainsaw, a car, an axe, a lawnmower, bleach, turpentine, candles, a lighter, a barbecue grill with propane or an open flame...on ad nauseum. Does the doc ask about them or how they are secured? If not then the doc needs to shut the hell up because he/she has an agenda.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.