Puddldoc wrote: Interesting article--those same physicians are notorious for bullying nurses. I once worked with a surgeon who constantly yelled at, intimidated young nurses. I despised him. One time, I actually heard him tell a new doc " Be sure that they are afraid of you--they will take better care of YOUR patients if they are afraid of incurring your wrath". Needless to say, I wasn't intimidated by him and I did everything I could to protect the younger nurses. It has always amazed me that the medical community accepts these behaviors. Why don't their fellow physicians step in and stop it?

From Bonnie M. "Dr. Elpern, Just to let you know I had a similar experience when I was at UMass Medical in Worcester for a week. The doctors are very good but have so many patients that they do not have a lot of time to be with you. There was an amazing lady who brought the food and happiness to me. Being from Africa her children are going to high school or college in Africa she smiled all of the time. She talked to them on the phone. She has been working hard to make a better life. She continued to talk to me more and more eventually telling me she had lived on the street for awhile and still smiling. She visited each day for a while showing happiness which helped me through the many days there."

From Richard Ratzan: alan was a gentle and caring soul but not wishy washy. he was a good friend over the years and we enjoyed talking. he embodied living the spiritually brave life. i liked cecily too

From Sandra Bertman: Oh my--a dear voice from the long ago past. Thank you David. His gentleness, egoless presence was so obvious --always. I recall meeting Cicely. Wish I could find some of that old correspondence and/or somehow stayed in touch. After Florence Wald died and Morris Wessel (?) I lost touch with that wonderful group. Just read Alan's obit. I'll forward it to Sally Bailey who has moved South.

from Samuel Abady, Esq: "Such experiments mirrored Nazi medical experimentation on helpless test subjects at Buchenwald, Dachau, Natzweiler, and Ravensbrück; the less well known but equally horrid Japanese Unit 731 medical experiments during World War II; and the Tuskegee syphilis study conducted between 1932 and 1972. These are discussed in Jonathan D. Moreno, Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans (2000). The government’s report on the infamous Tuskegee study is here: http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cphl/history/reports/tuskegee/tuskegee.htm [Pub. Health Serv., U.S. Dep't of Health, Educ. & Welfare, Final Report of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel (1973)]. In 1966, Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stated, “no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.” [G.A. Res. 2200 (XXI), U.N. Doc. A/6316 (Dec. 16, 1966)]. But is mere “free consent” sufficient? Prof. Jay Katz at Yale Law School thinks not. I bet you’ll appreciate his discussion of the subject in the attached law review article.

A physician reader wrote: "powerful post, one person who trained around my time and did a laser fellowship recently told me, forget lasers, im starting to speak for psoriasis companies, they pay the big bucks. go figure!"

I just came across this quote: "Perfect does not mean perfect actions in a perfect world, but appropriate actions in an imperfect one. R.H. Blyth. Dilatation and Evacuation can be a necessary and appropriate action for a tragic situation.