We Should Be In Medical School.

Q: If lawyers should consider the ethical merits of their clients when deciding whether to represent them, should doctors have the power to refuse to treat patients who they feel deserve what they got? I'm talking about people shot by police in the course of a serious crime, drug users (they did it to themselves), etc. Should Christian fundamentalists be allowed to refuse treatment to homosexual AIDS patients?

A: Any lawyer should be interested in the long term consequences to the client. Several years back a delivery truck owned by a local Coca-Cola bottler hit a school bus in Texas, sending the bus into a water filled sinkhole and drowning something like 20 students. All of the kids were from very poor backgrounds. The publically traded Coca-Cola company ("COKE") had no possible connection; they did not own the truck, own the company that owned the truck, employee the driver, or have any control over the accident. COKE did not have any legal responsibility to pay any money to anyone. The news

stories all said "coke truck kills 20." Within days COKE's attorneys were in Texas, offering very, very large sums of money to survivors, in return COKE wanted no suits against any party. For what the WSJ thinks might have exceeded $100 million, COKE got it. Much money to keep your name out of the papers. I am sure COKE's attorneys said you don't have to pay one cent but someone said the money should be paid anyway. The WSJ said that the survivors stayed in that poor border town and that if you go through town, you will see scattered among house trailers and small houses, mansions that seem out of place. The mansions are owned by people who had a child die in the accident..