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Steve O'Malley, FRCS
Taubman Medical Center Ann Arbor, Mich

JAMA. 1987;257(9):1175.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor. —

As a visiting fellow from England, I feel I cannot let Dr Abrams' article entitled "Patient Advocate or Secret Agent?"¹ pass without comment.

While agreeing with his basic ideas of informed consent, I find offensive his comments about English physicians being "agents of the state" and making "political decisions" and particularly his comparison "between the physician acting on behalf of the state in England... and the physician acting on behalf of the state in Chile, Uruguay, and South Africa abetting the torture of political opponents to achieve social goals, and the physician acting in accord with the Soviet Oath of 1971, treating political dissidents in mental institutions to achieve social goals." He would also seem to imply in his article that England does not "uphold individual rights as staunchly as... in America."

The British Health Service is certainly not perfect nor is it the answer . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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