Physician
From Wikiquote
A physician or medical doctor practices medicine osteopathy and in many states, chiropractic, and is concerned with maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injury. This is accomplished through a detailed knowledge of anatomy, physiology, diseases and treatment — the science of medicine — and its applied practice — the art or craft of medicine.
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- Medical licenses are a limited commodity, reflecting an artificial shortage created by partnership between Congress and organizations representing physicians -- with medical school seats and residency positions effectively allotted by the government, much like radio frequencies. Physicians benefit from this arrangement in that a smaller number of physicians inevitably leads to increased rates of reimbursement. There's nothing inherently wrong with this arrangement. However, it belies any claim that doctors should have the same right to choose their customers as barbers or babysitters.
- Jacob M. Appel, medical writer, Big Sky Dilemma: Must Doctors Help Their Patients Die?, September 2, 2009.
- The principle of confidentiality is not a "Get out of Jail Free" card for physicians who, having acquired knowledge outside of their work as doctors, do not wish to offer testimony. I cannot simply declare that, because I am a physician, all the advice that I offer to friends and family is privileged. What I tell my patients at the hospital may be protected from judicial scrutiny. What I tell my buddies on the golf course or at the pool hall, on the other hand, is fair game for prosecutors--even if I happen to have M.D. license plates and a caduceus pin on my lapel. Otherwise, any mobster worth his salt would send his consigliere to medical school rather than law school.
- Jacob M. Appel, medical writer, Dr. Coburn's Peculiar Privilege, October 2, 2009.
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- Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing
- Voltaire, French philosopher
- My doctor gave me six months to live, but when I couldn't pay the bill he gave me six months more.
- Walter Matthau, actor
