BMJ  2004;328:E298 (15 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7449.E298

BMJ USA: Letter

Letter

Letter

Editor:

I don't know whether to be outraged at the author of the "Personal View" article in the March 2004 issue [Jabbour S. Fall of a dictator, failure of ethics. BMJ USA 2004;4: 134-135] or at the editors of BMJ USA for giving voice to such a reprehensible statement with nary a rebuttal. Is BMJ USA in the evidence-based medicine business or does it also have a political agenda?

Mr Jabbour's claim of patient's rights for Saddam Hussein is a shameful excuse for propounding a purely political opinion in a medical journal. Saddam Hussein is no patient, and to refer to him as such and to thereby afford him certain rights is a desecration of the dignity of real patients everywhere. The person examining him clearly is not his physician, nor do Saddam and the examiner comprise a patient-physician relationship.

Mr Jabbour leaves behind the medical justification for his anti-American attack and proceeds to claim that displaying Saddam looking "like a monster will... contribute to forming an image in the public's eye that is not in Saddam's favor." Does he seriously believe that it is appropriate for anyone to be trying to clean up the image of a man who is known so universally as a monster and the enemy of mankind?

Mr Jabbour decries the video as presenting Saddam as "barbarian-looking" and the war as a "struggle between barbarianism and civilization." Yet wouldn't the vast majority of the civilized world agree that those characterizations of Saddam and this struggle are perfectly apt?

Contrary to Mr Jabbour's claim, the video hardly evokes disgust, but instead, relief that this evil human being is finally separated from society. The only people who are disgusted by the video are Mr Jabbour and Saddam's remaining supporters.

Do the editors of BMJ USA have an opinion on the video or Mr Jabbour's views?

internal medicine Tucson, AZ

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Editor's reply: Our opinion was that Samer Jabbour's take on the extensively broadcast video clip was interesting and provocative. Apparently, we were right.

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