Re: MED-PRIVACY digest 144

[ahlewis@scsn.net (Alan Lewis)]

Sometimes things fall into a pattern you should have seen before.  Must 
be the coffee, along with that last post (Digest 144) from 
METRA1001@aol.com.

The essence of the current situation regarding medical (& other types of) 
privacy is that power over the lives & personhood of individuals is being 
usurped, essentially in secret, by (essentially unknown) parties who then 
have unwarranted control over the lives of those individuals.  Those 
parties were not elected to that terrible power.  The situation is not 
the result of an open discussion and a vote.  The power to profoundly 
affect lives was simply...taken.

In order to test the fairness or validity of a situation, it helps to 
mentally make a small change and see if it rings true. "Now how would you 
feel if Johnny did that to you?" Consider the current situation regarding 
privacy, that essential ingredient in freedom.  Ask yourself  what you'd 
think if you read of a country (say somewhere in Europe) where shadowy, 
unelected figures exercised power over the citizens.  You'd quickly think 
"Iron Curtain, sometime in the 50's."  Certainly there are differences 
between this hypothetical situation and that of current medical privacy 
practices.  But there are damn few *essential* differences.  Yo!  In the 
USA, concentrations of power not derived from election are eventually 
broken up.  Ask AT&T.

People don't understand what has happened and is still happening. Those 
so concerned with grabbing power (and yes, it is that, based on 
information) should ask themselves what they'll do when people wake up.

I'm starting to see newspaper articles where I live (central SC) critical 
of medical privacy practices.  Maybe that awakening has started.

Alan Lewis

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   Alan Lewis     ahlewis@scsn.net 
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