St. Luke/Kentucky Connection Probed

[Armando Ramos]

Armando;

Interesting story but is there a point you're making?  There are some frauds but there are thousands of doctors practicing with offshore medical degrees.  There is a difference.

Not really making a point myself, but the stories raised a lot of interesting issues.  Plus, who can resist any story with "Jerroll Dolphin" as a main character?  

For starters, it seems like Arnett is taking heat on all fronts solely because of his association with St. Luke.  Arnett appears to be appropriately trained and licensed, and engaged in appropriate activities for his training and licensure.  But he is still getting the hot foot from the local press.  

And Dolphin seemed very adamant: "Dolphin said St. Luke offered an intensive curriculum and was not a diploma mill..."  

Meanwhile, it appears some other guys with St. Luke connections were engaging in inappropriate activities.  It's already illegal to practice medicine without a license in most places.  The question of whether the fraudster has a bogus degree or a real one seems irrelevant.  

As you say, there are thousands of doctors practicing competently with offshore medical degrees.  And there are also thousands of doctors with perfectly proper degrees and licenses out there malpracticing.  We already have an elaborate licensing system so big brother can protect us from unqualified physicians.  If people are slipping through the cracks it's an indictment of the existing licensing and regulatory system, not non-traditional education.  It's always interesting to see the jerk weeds on other channels seize on these stories as evidence that unaccredited schools are evil incarnate, when it's really the incompetence of their beloved statist bureaucracies that causes the problems.  

And of course the parallel between the wealthy, entrenched medical interests fighting incursions by non-traditional healers into the field, just as the wealthy, entrenched higher education interests fight incursions by non-traditional education into theirs.  The controllers use public health and safety as a justification for eliminating competition.  If they were really interested in health and safety wouldn't the public be better served by the elimination of incompetent practitioners?   Where's the multi-part series on incompetent surgeons cutting off the wrong body part or government certified physicians killing or maiming patients with "conventional" medical treatment?  Every courthouse is filled with boxes of files documenting these events, but the odds of seeing those stories covered in the local fish wrap are slim and none.  It's easier (and safer) to pick on some naturopath out in Kentucky.