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The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a controversial politically conservative non-profit organization of physicians, medical professionals and students, patients and others, founded in 1943.

The group had approximately 4,000 members in 2005. Notable members include Ron Paul and John Cooksey. The executive director is Jane Orient, professor of clinical medicine at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.

History

During the winter of 1943, the Lake County (Indiana) Medical Committee decided to take action against the Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill, proposed legislation that would provide government health care for most U.S. citizens. Also opposed to the bill was the conservative National Physicians Committee. The committee began a membership drive in February 1944. By May 1944, the AAPS claimed members from all 48 states. A 1944 Time article reported their aim was the "defeat of any Government group medicine".

In 1966, the New York Times called the organization an "ultra-right-wing... political-economic rather than medical" group, and asserted that historically some of its leaders had been members of the John Birch Society. In 1967, Time called AAPS "an ultra-conservative political-action group".

Positions

The AAPS is politically conservative and describes itself as "non-partisan". The organization opposes mandatory vaccination, universal health care and government intervention in healthcare. The AAPS has characterized the effects of the Social Security Act of 1965, which established Medicare and Medicaid, as "evil" and "immoral", and encouraged member physicians to refuse to accept or participate in Medicare and Medicaid. AAPS says that medical care is not a right, and that a government-mandated entitlement to medical care is unconstitutional and immoral; hence they oppose efforts to implement a national health plan. The organization also opposes mandated evidence-based medicine and practice guidelines, criticizing it as a usurpation of physician autonomy and a fascist merger of state and corporate power where the biggest stakeholder is the pharmaceutical industry. Other procedures that AAPS opposes include abortion and over-the-counter access to emergency contraception.

Legal activism

In 1993, the AAPS, along with several other groups, filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and Donna Shalala‎ over closed-door meetings related to the 1993 Clinton health care plan. The AAPS sued to gain access to the list of members of President Clinton's health care taskforce. Judge Royce C. Lamberth found in favor of the plaintiffs and awarded $285,864 to the AAPS for legal costs; Lamberth also harshly criticized the Clinton administration and Clinton aide Ira Magaziner in his ruling. Subsequently, a federal appeals court overturned the award and the initial findings on the basis that Magaziner and the administration had not acted in bad faith.

In 2004, AAPS filed a brief on behalf of Rush Limbaugh, opposing the seizure of his medical files in an investigation of alleged misuse of prescription drugs. In 1975, they went to court to block enforcement of a new Social Security amendment that would monitor the treatment given Medicare and Medicaid patients. More recently, they have been involved in litigation against HIPAA, arguing that it is violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution by allowing government access to certain medical data without a warrant. In 2006 the group criticised what it called sham peer review, claiming it was a device used to punish whistleblowers.

In 2005, the AAPS helped appeal the conviction of Virginia internist William Hurwitz, who was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for prescribing excessive quantities of narcotic drugs after 16 former patients testified against him. Hurwitz was granted a retrial in 2006, and his 25-year prison sentence was reduced to 57 months.

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPandS), until 2003 named the Medical Sentinel, is the journal of the association. Its mission statement includes "… a commitment to publishing scholarly articles in defense of the practice of private medicine, the pursuit of integrity in medical research … Political correctness, dogmatism and orthodoxy will be challenged with logical reasoning, valid data and the scientific method." The publication policy of the journal states that articles are subject to a double-blind peer-review process.

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons like the majority of medical journals is not listed in the major literature databases of MEDLINE/PubMed nor the Web of Science.. PubMed covers approximately 520 publications ] from several thousand published annually.

Articles and commentaries published in the journal have argued:

• that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are unconstitutional,
• that "humanists" have conspired to replace the "creation religion of Jehovah" with evolution,
• that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not caused global warming,
• that HIV does not cause AIDS,
• that the "gay male lifestyle" shortens life expectancy by 20 years.

A series of articles by pro-life authors published in the journal argued for the existence of a link between abortion and breast cancer; such a link was rejected by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and is not recognized by major medical organizations such as the American Cancer Society or World Health Organization.

A 2003 paper published in the journal, claiming that vaccination was harmful, was criticized for poor methodology, lack of scientific rigor, and outright errors by the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics. A National Public Radio piece cited inaccurate information published in the Journal and wrote: "The journal itself is not considered a leading publication, as it's put out by an advocacy group that opposes most government involvement in medical care."

Quackwatch lists JPandS as an untrustworthy, non-recommended periodical. An editorial in Chemical & Engineering News described JPandS as a "purveyor of utter nonsense." Investigative journalist Brian Deer wrote that the journal is the "house magazine of a right-wing American fringe group " and "is barely credible as an independent forum."

Leprosy errors

In a 2005 article published in the Journal, Madeleine Cosman argued that illegal immigrants were carriers of disease and that immigrants and "anchor babies" were launching a "stealthy assault on medicine." In the article, Cosman claimed that "Suddenly, in the past 3 years America has more than 7,000 cases of leprosy" because of illegal aliens. The journal's leprosy claim was cited and repeated by Lou Dobbs as evidence of the dangers of illegal immigration.

However, publicly available statistics show that the 7,000 cases of leprosy occurred during the past 30 years, not the past 3 as Cosman claimed. James L. Krahenbuhl, director of the U.S. government's leprosy program, stated that there had been no significant increase in leprosy cases, and that "It is not a public health problem—that’s the bottom line." National Public Radio reported that the Journal article "had footnotes that did not readily support allegations linking a recent rise in leprosy rates to illegal immigrants." The article's erroneous leprosy claim was pointed out by 60 Minutes, National Public Radio, and the New York Times among other sources, but has not been corrected by the Journal.

References

1. "AAPS membership information". AAPS website. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
2. ^ "Portent". Time. 1944-05-08. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
3. "Doctors Who Hurt Doctors". TIME magazine. 2005-08-07. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
4. AAPS (2002). "Volume 58, No. 10 October 2002". Retrieved 2007-02-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
5. New Power in A.M.A.; Milford Owen Rouse, published June 30 1966 in the New York Times. Accessed March 16 2007.
6. "Progress Report". Time Magazine. 30-06-1967. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
7. Hall, Mimi (2002-07-22). "Many states reject bioterrorism law". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
8. "Membership Information". AAPS. Retrieved 2008-08-01.
9. "AAPS Mandatory Vaccine Factsheet". AAPS website. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
10. "AAPS Petition". AAPS website. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
11. "AAPS Letter Against Healthcare Reform". AAPS website. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
12. Principles of the AAPS, from the AAPS website. Accessed March 10 2007.
13. Medicare Boycott Urged for Doctors, published August 5 1965 in the New York Times. Accessed March 16 2007.
14. Notes on Opting Out of Medicare, from the AAPS website. Accessed March 10 2007.
15. RESOLUTION 2001-1: Medical Care Is NOT a Right, from the AAPS website. Accessed March 10 2007.
16. The Standard of Care, from the AAPS website. Accessed March 10 2007.
17. Resolution passed by the Assembly - Affirming the Sanctity of Human Life, from the AAPS website. Accessed March 12 2007.
18. Comments re: Docket No. 2005N-0345, RIN 0910-AF72, from the AAPS website. Accessed March 12 2007.
19. Judge Rules Government Covered Up Lies on Panel, By Robert Pear. From the New York Times, December 19 1997; accessed January 3 2008.
20. Court Clears Clinton Aide In Lying Case, by Neil A. Lewis. Published in the New York Times, August 25 1999. Accessed January 3 2008.
21. "Doctors Group: Limbaugh Medical Records Seizure Unlawful". NewsMax.com. 2004-02-22. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
22. "Review for Doctors". TIME magazine. 1975-12-01. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
23. Peters, S. (2001). "Physicians File Lawsuit To Overturn HIPAA". Internal Medicine News. Retrieved 2007-02-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
24. Lawrence R. Huntoon (2006-05-09). "Sham Peer Review: A National Epidemic". Retrieved 2007-02-14.
25. "Why Is The DEA Hounding This Doctor?". TIME magazine. 2005-07-18. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
26. Washington Post story, July 14th, 2007.
27. "Medical Sentinel". Retrieved 2007-02-14.
28. "Major Changes to AAPS Peer-Reviewed Journal". AAPS website. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
29. "Manuscript information for authors" (PDF). JPandS website. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
30. "[[PubMed]] database". Retrieved 2007-02-14. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
31. "[[Web of Science]]". Retrieved 2007-02-14. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
32. {{cite web | url=ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/pubmed/J_Medline.txt | title=PubMed
33. The FDA and HCFA (Part II): Unconstitutional Regulatory Agencies, by James A. Albright, MD. Published in Medical Sentinel, 2000;5(6):205-208.
34. Conspiracy --- Part III, by Curtis W. Caine, MD. Published in Medical Sentinel, 1999;4(6):224.
35. Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide by Arthur B. Robinson, Noah E. Robinson, and Willie Soon. Published in The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 2007; 12(3), 79.
36. Questioning HIV/AIDS: Morally Reprehensible or Scientifically Warranted?, by Henry Bauer. Published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons 2007: Vol 12, No. 4, p. 116.
37. AIDS - A Heterosexual Epidemic? by Michael Fumento and AIDS - Inventing a Virus? Commentary by Peter H. Duesberg, PhD. From Medical Sentinel, Volume 2, No. 3, Summer 1997. | duesberg.com
38. Homosexuality: Some Neglected Considerations, by Nathaniel S. Lehrman, MD. Published in Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Volume 10, Number 3 (Fall 2005), pp. 80-82.
39. The Abortion-Breast Cancer Link: How Politics Trumped Science and Informed Consent, by Karen Malec. Published in Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Volume 8, Number 2 (Summer 2003), pp. 41-45.
40. Induced Abortion as an Independent Risk Factor for Breast Cancer: A Critical Review of Recent Studies Based on Prospective Data, by Joel Brind, Ph.D. Published in Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Volume 10, Number 4 (Winter 2005), pp. 105-110.
41. Abortion, Miscarriage, and Breast Cancer Risk. Fact sheet from the National Cancer Institute. Accessed March 11 2007.
42. Can Having an Abortion Cause or Contribute to Breast Cancer?, from the American Cancer Society. Accessed March 31 2008.
43. "Induced abortion does not increase breast cancer risk". World Health Organization. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
44. "Position of the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety regarding concerns raised by paper about the safety of thiomersal-containing vaccines". WHO. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
45. "Study Fails to Show a Connection Between Thimerosal and Autism". American Academy of Pediatrics. 2003-05-16. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
46. ^ Broken Borders? CBS Lambastes, Hires Dobbs, by David Folkenflik. From All Things Considered, National Public Radio, May 11 2007. Accessed August 29 2008.
47. Barrett, S., M.D. "Nonrecommended Periodicals". Quackwatch. Retrieved 2007-02-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
48. Baum, Rudy (2008). "Defending Science". Chemical & Engineering News. 86 (23): 5. Retrieved 2008-09-24. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
49. "Bitter Heather Mills defends credibility as Wakefield anti-MMR campaign crumbles". BrianDeer.com. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
50. ^ Illegal Aliens and American Medicine, by Madeleine Cosman. Published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, Spring 2005 (Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 6-10).
51. ^ Truth, Fiction, and Lou Dobbs, by David Leonhardt. Published in the New York Times on May 30 2007; accessed August 29 2008.
52. New U.S. Reported Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Cases by Year, 1976-2005, from the U.S. National Hansen's Disease (Leprosy) Program. Accessed August 29 2008.
53. Lou Dobbs' Opinion, from 60 Minutes. Originally broadcast on May 17 2007; accessed August 29 2008.

External links

• AAPSonline.org - Association of American Physicians and Surgeons home page
• Medical Sentinel - The first journal published by AAPS, now renamed to the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons.
• Hacienda Publ.

• Advocacy groups
• Conservative organizations in the United States
• American medical associations
• Pro-life organizations in the United States
• Organizations established in 1943
• Non-profit organizations based in Arizona
• American political magazines