Jack Cassell, a doctor in Mount Dora, Florida, posted a sign urging his Obama-voting patients to “seek urologic care elsewhere” in protest of health-insurance reform!
The sign reads: “If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years.”
Cassell may be walking a thin line between his right to free speech and his professional obligation, said William Allen, professor of bioethics, law and medical professionalism at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine.
Allen said doctors cannot refuse patients on the basis of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability, but political preference is not one of the legally protected categories specified in civil-rights law. By insisting he does not quiz his patients about their politics and has not turned away patients based on their vote, the doctor is “trying to hold onto the nub of his ethical obligation,” Allen said.
“But this is pushing the limit,” he said.
Outspoken Politician Alan Grayson described Cassell’s sign as “ridiculous.”
“I’m disgusted,” he said. “Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, ‘Do no good.’ If this is the face of the right wing in America, it’s the face of cruelty. … Why don’t they change the name of the Republican Party to the Sore Loser Party?
It’s good to see that a LOSER like Cassell choose the right profession like UROLOGY that he could relate to.
What a DICK!