500 Years after Protestant Reformation, Courage Needed to Reform American Medicine, writes President of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)

TUCSON, Ariz., March 22, 2018 -- Oct 31, 2017, marked an important day in history: the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, writes Albert L. Fisher, M.D., of Oshkosh, Wis., president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), in the spring issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. “Physicians should study the events surrounding this religious and societal upheaval,” he states. “Some have argued that modern medicine has taken on the trappings of a religion. Is there anything we can learn from the Reformation that might apply to our circumstances?”

Dr. Fisher visited Germany, which was celebrating the anniversary of Martin Luther’s tacking his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg. Luther criticized the papal policy of selling indulgences, claimed to release a soul from purgatory, to help finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The newly invented printing press enabled his talking points to “go viral.” The Catholic Church demanded that Luther recant, on pain of death, and that his writings be burned. At a hearing before Emperor Charles V, Luther famously said he would recant only “if convinced of his error either by Scripture or by evident reason.”

Dr. Fisher writes: “AAPS has called for a reformation in American Medicine. The time has come for physicians to reject the false dogma and nonsensical rituals that have been thrust upon us. Government and quasi-governmental authorities are constantly handing down edicts and selling compliance materials that are supposed to protect us from fee cuts, fines, and other punishment. Doctors are constantly threatened by the equivalent of excommunication from hospital staffs, insurance panels, or the profession itself, if they offend officials or hold dissenting views.”

Dr. Fisher calls for physicians to have the courage to stand on principle, and to serve their patients, not the governmental or other agencies that claim to be the sole authority on “best practices.”

The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons is published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943.

Contact: Albert Fisher, M.D., (920) 236-3290, [email protected], or Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, [email protected]