The American Spectator

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(Page 5 of 14)

Beverly Gunn br> East Texas Cattle Rancher br> Mother of serving pilot /p> p> BITTER MEDICINE br> Re: Doug Bandow's The Democrats' Favorite Target : /p> p>As a libertarian and physician, I must disagree with Mr. Bandow on his position of looking at pharmaceutical companies in the same manor as every other business. At issue are not excessive profits or monopolies. At issue is the consumer's ability to make an informed decision on a product they have no right to purchase as a sole agent. We take for granted that when we see an advertisement for a car or an X-box we have the ability as an individual to make a reasonable and rational choice to purchase or not. This dyad between seller and buyer is the basis of almost all advertising. This is not the case with pharmaceuticals. How can it be ethical to advertise a product that one can not obtain without the consent of a highly educated medical professional whose job is to act solely as patient advocate? Direct to consumer advertising grossly distorts this relationship and pharmaceutical companies and doctors are to blame. American medicine has abdicated its responsibility to create unbiased scientific medical research and instead has embraced the pharmaceutical industry and its money ultimately producing mounds of junk science that do little but monger made up diseases and increase the consumption of prescription drugs. We are 5% of the world's population and we the USA consume 43% of the world's pharmaceuticals which means either we are way over medicated or the rest of the world is not. Regardless of your position there is no credible evidence we are getting our monies worth. br> -- John Sorboro, MD /p> p>

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