Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2026

Journal Title

Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy

ISSN

1534-7907

Abstract

This Article is about health, leaving aside more general challenges to shared civic information today. The Article begins by surveying the principal challenges for health information in post-pandemic, arguably post-truth America, and then describes briefly the sources and limits of medical professional authority. Noting the double-edged sword of free speech guarantees under the U.S. Constitution, the Article continues by commenting on speaking truth to government, to industry, and to the crowd. Next, the Article considers the physicians’ role in speaking truth to power from the perspective of standard medical professional ethics and identity, comparing it to that of lawyers. Finally, this Article comments on the potential benefits for trust and truth from collaborations between professions (e.g., medical-legal partnership), and with communities, when engaging public controversies that encompass not only medical science and social circumstance but also what Donald Berwick has called the moral determinants of health.

First Page

115

Last Page

140

Num Pages

26

Volume Number

25

Issue Number

1

Publisher

Health Law & Policy Institute at the University of Houston Law Center

File Type

PDF

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