The Medical Skills Draft
Some alert readers have recently made me aware of a frightening possibility in the future: a “skills draft” targetting Americans with certain skills, including medical training. I don’t mean to be overly alarmist, as the plan is only that–initial planning–just in case Congress would ever authorize a second draft. But the fact that it’s even being planned is a little frightening. (This draft would also include women–generally all citizens up to the age of 34.)
There’s more information at The Blatant Truth, including a PDF of a FOIA document that unearthed the information, and a great deal more at DailyKos. (And from what I’ve heard, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” isn’t enforced for medical personnel.)
I would imagine a significant number of health care professionals–doctors, nurses, etc.–would fundamentally be opposed to being sent to war on ethical grounds: that whole concept of “killing people” and “causing harm” don’t really go too well with the Hippocratic Oath.
Update: Medpundit and Gruntdoc both say it’s all over-reaction. I’m sure it’s easy much easier to downplay the concerns of young polyglots, computer network engineers, and medical students when you’re over 35, and not at risk of being drafted. (And god forbid should bioterrorism occur, I hope we don’t turn so militarized that waves of physicians get drafted–add us to the Public Health Corps or the CDC, but not the Armed Services.)
[...] Med Draft, Cont’d Wednesday Oct 20 2004 Thoughts Links I’m not sure how my comments (“I don’t mean to be overly alarmist, as the plan is [...]
Medical Draft: or, Kool-Aid and You.
In an interesting entry, Graham wishes to alert us to the risk of a possible Medical Skills Draft, via the International Herald Tribune, and the weblogs Blatant Truth and DailyKos (there’re some sites I never thought I’d link). Spend a few minutes re…
It’s a scary prospect and, sadly, I think one that we will have to face in the relatively near future, regardless of who gets elected in two weeks.
Semi-separately, I think that in case of any draft at all, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” disappears. It’s barely sustainable now, forget about it in a draft.
Alright…let’s settle this once and for all.
Congress just voted on a draft. It failed miserably (402-2). There will be NO draft any time soon. It’s political suicide. No General wants unmotivated troops and this country doesn’t want a non-volunteer military.
But I don’t mind them “planning” for one just in case.
I’ve think you’ve been studying to hard man…med school is frying your brain. ;-) j/k
Keep up the good site.
Well, I’d want to know if this is a plan they’re drawing up from scratch right now, in preparation for a likely medical draft, or is it something they keep in their back pocket and update occasionally in case America ever gets invaded. As for the military draft, it does seem very, very unlikely; more probably, if things really got stretched they’d pull a few troops out of somewhere they’re not needed (aren’t they going to pull troops from Europe soon?).
By the way, look at the title of this page; doesn’t the blog name interact with the thread name in an interesting manner?
Mmmmmmm…..Kool-Aid..
The GruntDoc has a post about the plans for a medical draft. I agree with the GruntDoc here, as does Dr. Smith, and Doc Russia (who posits that “the whole thing is fearmongering by the left to try to woo back voters that normally vote democrat, but a…
Mmmmmmm…..Kool-Aid..
The GruntDoc has a post about the plans for a medical draft. I agree with the GruntDoc here, as does Dr. Smith, and Doc Russia (who posits that “the whole thing is fearmongering by the left to try to woo back voters that normally vote democrat, but a…
Medical Draft: or, Kool-Aid and You.
In an interesting entry, Graham wishes to alert us to the risk of a possible Medical Skills Draft, via the International Herald Tribune, and the weblogs Blatant Truth and DailyKos (there’re some sites I never thought I’d link). Spend a few minutes re…
Medical Professionals Dodge The Draft
On Tuesday the New York Times printed a report on recent efforts to update plans for a military draft of health care professionals.
Apparently consultants for the military spent last summer updating plans for drafting up to 36,000 health care profes…
Come on, Graham, this is getting embarrassing. No one expects you to know much about practicing medicine yet, but when you speculate about “that whole concept of “killing people” and “causing harm” don’t really go too well with the Hippocratic Oath,” you’re crossing a line. What doctors and nurses do while on active duty is exactly what they do in civilian life. They provide comfort and cure for sick and injured people, just as you will do when you finish your training. The difference in this case is that the sick and injured that I took care of during my 9 years as an Army doc were people who on a daily basis were risking their lives (or had done so before retiring, or were the family members of those who had done so) so that the rest of us could go about our business free from concern that some fanatic nutcase would succeed in his desire to kill us or maim us or take control of our lives. I bet that you would like being an Army doc once you lost the ideological blinders that many in your cadre wear. There was no concern about ability to pay; all the patient needed to do was show an ID card and sign in to the clinic. Meds were free and freely available, no copay, co deductible. If illness or injury made return to work impossible, there was no limitation on sick leave. If a soldier needed a service not available at the local hospital, he/she was transported to wherever needed to get the service, sometimes a larger military hospital, sometimes a civilian facility. In 9 years of duty, I never was shot at, and shot a gun only during annual firearms training. In one of my assignments I took care of soldiers of an elite airborne unit. You won’t meet a finer group of people anywhere, certainly not on a typical college campus.
I don’t want to get all Jack Nicholson on you, but your whining about “add us to the Public Health Corps or the CDC, but not the Armed Services.)” is juvenile. You’re a student at an elite medical school, lucky enough to be part of the most privileged generation that has ever existed, and you don’t want to get your hands dirty providing care to people who willingly put their lives on the line defending you and yours. Think about it.
I’m happy helping anyone, JB–soldiers included, of course. If someone is injured or sick, I want to help them. But I take issue with contributing to what I feel is an unjust, illegitimate war. I realize my privelege in being able to say that, and my privelege in having the opportunities provided to me so that the armed services were only one of many options for me.
I’m a student at a medical school. Medical students are inherently elite.
I’m well-aware of the armed services medical system, I’ve read enough to know that it’s very much like a single-payer system. But I don’t know that I could ethically contribute to a war that has killed thousands of innocents-soldiers included-with no compelling reason for war, and no compelling data suggesting we’re leaving any time soon.
I have absolutely no problem getting my hands dirty-it’s usually the dirtiest of places that have the most need-but I question the notion that the soldiers in Iraq are defending me; many of them don’t believe that either anymore. This is not to say that I do not support the troops at all; they are following orders and doing what their CiC ordered them to do.
This war is making Iraq moredangerous, not less. There are now more terrorist cells in Iraq, and more angry and hateful Iraqis against America than there were before. Every father, mother, brother, and sister killed as “collateral damage” has someone to blame: The United States.