Reputation, Malpractice Liability, and Medical Error

Authors

William M. Sage, Texas A&M University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Book Section

Publication Date

9-2004

ISBN

9781589012301

Abstract

For over a century, opposition to malpractice litigation has been a litmus test for membership in the medical profession. Doctors hate malpractice suits. They hate them passionately and continuously. Being sued becomes a recurring nightmare for many physicians, and occasionally an obsession. Eliminating malpractice suits takes precedence over every other political objective—whether public-interested or self-serving—for the American Medical Association and state medical societies. No contradictory belief, however well-reasoned, empirically based, or sincerely held, succeeds in crowding out antipathy toward malpractice from physicians’ minds.

First Page

159

Last Page

183

Num Pages

25

Series

Hastings Center Studies in Ethics series

Publisher

Georgetown University Press

Editor

Virginia A. Sharpe

Book Title

Accountability: Patient Safety and Policy Reform

Recommended Citation

William M. Sage, Reputation, Malpractice Liability, and Medical Error, in Accountability: Patient Safety and Policy Reform 159 (Virginia A. Sharpe eds., 2004).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.tamu.edu/facscholar/1772