Malpractice law is petty politics

To the editor:

I am concerned that petty politics is being placed ahead of the common good in Missouri. State legislators know the governor would sign a bill that limits malpractice claims, but they insist on linking medical malpractice with industrial malpractice in House Bill 1304.

As the president of a university with a faculty of more than 100 physicians, I know firsthand that physicians are leaving the state and especially rural areas where they cannot have the patient population (and income) to afford the increasing malpractice insurance premiums. This is causing patients to travel long distances to cities where physicians can afford the high rates.

Apparently, there are a number of Missouri legislators who are putting the embarrassment of the governor ahead of the common good -- the objective of government.

I prefer Aristotle's definition of politics -- group ethics -- because it focuses on the end -- the common good -- and indicates that the steps or means should be evaluated also according to what would happen as a result of those steps.

I am afraid that if some legislators do not consider the unintended consequences of their persistence in petty politics, they will bear the consequences themselves of being unethical according to the definitions of Aristotle.

Yes, politicians themselves can be guilty of malpractice.

DR. JAMES J. McGOVERN

President

A.T. Still University of Health Sciences

Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine

Kirksville, Mo.