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The physicians' legal move comes as the Obama Administration is pushing Democratic members of the Senate and House to merge the bills approved by their respective chambers. With neither version of the bill having attracted any Republican votes, and with no Democratic votes to spare, prospects for passage of a conference bill are small without further White House pressure on Democrat moderates.
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In a complaint before U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte, a Clinton appointee, the physicians claim that the unconstitutional passage of the pending healthcare legislation would have a devastating impact on American medicine. "I deplore the loss of the practice of medicine as we have known it," Dr. Richard P. Delaney, M.D., a Maryland family practice physician for over fifty years and one of the doctors bringing the action, asserted to the Court. In addition, said Dr. Delaney in a filed affidavit, the unconstitutional bill would :
The physicians' suit also adopts claims of unconstitutionality made by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and former Chairman of the Judiciary Committee; law professor J. Kenneth Blackwell of the Family Research Council and Liberty University School of Law; and Kenneth A. Klukowski of the American Civil Rights Union:
At the links, view in the physicians' original complaint in its entirely, with Dr. Delaney's affidavit.
Contact: Darren Spinck (202-669-4418/[email protected])
-- "eliminate the sacred binding of the dedicated physician and the sick patient" -- "insure that doctors who can retire will do so quickly and remain retired" -- force patients into "an impersonal system" operated by "clock-watching civil servants," and to wait "months or even years" to receive treatment -- ensure fewer students will opt to go to medical school "merely to become a government functionary" -- deny "free citizens access to the legitimate medical care of their own choosing" and -- "force physicians to practice medicine deficiently."
SOURCE Physicians Opposing Obama
