I’ve blogged a number of times about a Florida law that prohibits doctors from asking patients about guns in the home absent a specific concern. I’m already on record that I think this is an unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment rights of doctors and that states should not be able to sidestep our ability to screen, treat, or educate our patients by saying that they are regulating our “conduct” unless that conduct poses a demonstrable health and safety risk for the public.
Yesterday, James Hamblin published a piece on the issue in The Atlantic. Here’s a snippet:
Judge Wilson called his court’s decision unprecedented, essentially holding that licensed professionals have no First Amendment rights when they are speaking to clients or patients in private. “This in turn says that patients have no First Amendment right to receive information from licensed professionals–a frightening prospect.”
Physicians are concerned that, in addition to its public health implications, this decision opens the door to state interference in the patient-doctor relationship.
“It shouldn’t be allowed to happen,” Kummer said. He believes anything that has to do with the health of his patients is his business.
“Am I not allowed to ask if you wear a helmet when you ride your bicycle? Am I not allowed to ask if you smoke cigarettes? Am I not allowed to ask about your sexual orientation? It’s not a value judgment, it’s a health-related judgment. You can’t let the state interfere with that.”
Ask whatever you want but we’re free to reply it’s simply none of your damn business!