Doctor Coalition Sues California Medical Board for Insisting 'White Individuals Are Naturally Racist'
Two doctors, one black, and the other an Iranian-American, have sued the Medical Board of California for its requirement forcing a continuation of medical education courses that are focused on “implicit bias.”
Dr. Marilyn Singleton and Dr. Azadeh Khatibi argued that such a requirement violates their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and civil rights.
They said that such a requirement lacks evidence regarding its efficacy in the medical field and that the mandate is considered widely controversial among doctors.
Do No Harm, an organization that fights for individual patients and against identity politics, joined the doctors in opposing California’s mandate.
The lawsuit was filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a freedom-fighting organization, and challenges a mandate from California lawmakers that requires all medical courses to include “implicit bias” training.
“Physicians have free will and act in the best interest of their patients,” said Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Do No Harm’s chairman.
“The idea of unconscious bias states that one acts on those biases, and there’s no evidence of this happening in the medical community,” he added.
“Medical professionals take the Hippocratic oath to do no harm, and do not need lawmakers or medical organizations to tell them what they should think when providing medical advice to patients,” he continued.
The lawsuit points out that all state-licensed physicians must complete 50 hours of continuing medical education every two years.
It describes “implicit bias” as the “idea that medical professionals unconsciously treat patients differently based on their race or other immutable characteristics,” as reported by The Messenger.
In a Fox News Op-Ed, Singleton blasted the California law for what it truly is.
“While the law doesn’t say it, the accusation is clear: White people are oppressors and Black people are oppressed. Nationwide, implicit-bias trainings for medical professionals routinely discuss systemic racism, White supremacy, and other race-based attacks on classes of people,” she said.
“I don’t care that I’m not the target. This still represents the kind of racist thinking that was starting to fade 50 years ago. I don’t want to be taught this evil, nor do I want to teach it to others,” she added.
Singleton also said that medical professionals should focus on teaching medicine rather than pushing an agenda shared wholly by a political party.
“The First Amendment protects me from being forced to teach the state’s preferred narrative on such a divisive topic,” she wrote. “Medical professionals should teach medicine, not the party line.”
In the lawsuit, Singleton echoed the comments she wrote for Fox News.
“The implicit bias requirement promotes the inaccurate belief that white individuals are naturally racist,” she said. “This message can be detrimental to medical professionals and their patients as it creates an atmosphere of suspicion and animosity, which goes against the fundamental principle of doing no harm.”
The lawsuit has one goal — to stop California from mandating the requirement.
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