What is going on with medical practitioners and celebrities?  Michael Jackson is just the latest in an ever increasing list of celebrities who have died at the hands of their enabling medical doctors.  Where is the American Medical Association (AMA) on this issue?  Is the AMA the go-to-guy for advice on health care reform?

This is not just about death from illicit drugs – what about the ethics of plastic surgery?  Does pure capitalism rule?  What is capitalism – essentially it decides the monetary value of anything.  Whatever the buyer is willing to give and the seller is willing to take – market value.  Celebrities have lots of money – and there are AMA sanctioned medical doctors willing to take the money – for any thing at any time.

Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, and Anna Nichole Smith come to mind as celebrities who paid to have medical professionals kill them.   OK – we’ll give some on Heath Ledger, he may have contributed to his own death my consuming alcohol while on prescription medications – doctors can’t do much about the bedroom behavior of their patients.

Jackson’s case is particularly disturbing.  There are three huge warning signs:  Regular use of painkillers.  Extreme loss of weight.  And extreme plastic surgery.  Not to mention in-vitro fertilization with surrogate parents – who knows where those children came from or where they belong?

What are the ethics of plastic surgeons?  Someone please tell us.  We give you this – most plastic surgery is voluntary.  The chase of a youthful appearance has distorted the image of many.  Michael Jackson and Kenny Rogers are only two.  We understand the psychology of women seeking breast implants – if for no other reason that to find clothes that fit.  The clothing industry cannot seem to adapt to those of us who have less than advertising-defined perfect bodies.  But what about Michael Jackson?  His plastic suggeons butchered him for money – they knew what they were doing – and they marched to the bank with their money.

The whole issue of better living through chemistry is taken to the next level when otherwise healthy people are drugged out of any sensibility – out of any ability to make honest informed choices regarding their medication.  Addiction to painkillers, most of which are opiates, is no small matter.  While believing they are addressing physical pain – the central addictive element of opiates is the false sense of well-being.  We submit here that the Medical Doctors prescribing years of daily painkillers know what they are doing – they are making money by taking advantage of a drug addict with a lot of money.

One of the big issues on the desk of our President is health care reform.  Where can we, the public, look for advice?  The AMA?  Are you kidding me – these are the folks who sanction malicious behavior by members of their organization.  They are like any employee union – they defend wrong behavior as a matter of policy.  That is fine – defend anyone you want – but don’t expect us to listen to anything you have to say when we are working on reforming a very sick process.

The AMA will certainly deny sanctioning any errant behavior by individual members.  The problem is that there are so many errant physicians that the AMA loses credibility on the issue.  Any organization that wants to be taken seriously will police their own – they will demonstrate their ethical values by condemning, before the patient dies, the behavior of individuals.

The AMA is not an organization that can be trusted to act in the interest of the public.