Anally Raping the Constitution, Plus Tort Reform

 Posted on November 05, 2013 in Uncategorized

What hellish dystopia is this? Without Eckert's consent:

1. Eckert's abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.4. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.5. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.6. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert's anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.

(KOB 4.)

It's Emmette Flynn all over again. Robert Wilcox, M.D and Okay Odocha, M.D. ought to be reviled in the same breath as Michael LaPaglia. The ethical rule is clear: you don't perform medical procedures on a competent patient who refuses consent. There is no Befehl ist Befehl exception.

And it's not as if Wilcox and Odocha had to comply:

The lawsuit claims that Deming Police tried taking Eckert to an emergency room in Deming, but a doctor there refused to perform the anal cavity search citing it was "unethical."But physicians at the Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City agreed to perform the procedure and a few hours later, Eckert was admitted.

What consequences did the doctor at the Deming emergency room suffer for telling the pigs to fuck off? None. What consequences would there have been had Wilcox and Odocha just said "no"? None.

The cops might skate, even though they were told that the search was unethical-they had a warrant, although their manner of executing it (time and place) appears not to have been strictly legal-and the doctors might not be disciplined by their fellow doctors, as Emmette Flynn was not disciplined by his, but to me this sounds like an eight-figure lawsuit against the doctors.

It probably wouldn't be, if Wilcox and Odocha had assaulted Eckert in Texas. In Texas we have that conservative darling, tort reform, which limits a plaintiff's recovery in a health care liability suit to $250,000. If Wilcox, Odocha, and Gila Regional Medical Center ((Or their insurers-I'm hoping there's an exclusion that will bankrupt the doctors.)) split that three ways, that's less than $85k apiece...not chicken feed, but nowhere near an amount that would indelibly get the attention of every doctor in America who might otherwise consider violating medical ethics at government request.

Thanks for that, "conservatives."