The results are potentially important for health care workers taking sexual histories. If they want to know about oral sex, they had better ask specific questions. However, a JAMA press release noted that This issue is of particular interest and debate now because of recent presidential statements. Bill Clinton s using a technical definition of sex that excluded oral sex is part of his defence at the impeachment trial. Dr. Anderson s personal decision, while ratified by the AMA executive, was largely responsible for Lundberg s firing.
Academic freedom is the life blood of scientific inquiry.
Whatever one thinks of his decision in this particular case, Dr. Lundberg should have had the editorial freedom to make his considered decisions, good or bad. Medical science, particularly around issues related to public health, will not flourish if organized medicine interferes, in such destructive ways, with the process. Most senior academic physicians involved with scientific publications in medical journals are outraged at the AMA s behavior. For example, the editors of the two top British medical journals, the Lancet and the British Medical Journal, have written scathing editorials that they have posted on the world wide web and will publish in their journals this week. There are reasons for the public to be concerned about these events.