P.C., M.D.

The shenanigans of political correctness have been well documented. But most people, even those who keep up with these debates, probably assume they're confined to the liberal arts, rather than the hard sciences. Think again. As Sally Satel shows in PC, M.D., political correctness has also infected the world of medicine and public health--with results that may actually threaten everybody's well-being. Satel begins her well-told exposé by describing the presumption of some health professionals that because the sickest people in society are also disproportionately the poorest, the practice of medicine must address matters of social justice. "Many public health experts see their mission literally as attacking the conditions that lead to poverty and alienation in the first place," writes Satel, a practicing psychiatrist who also lectures at the Yale University School of Medicine. Unfortunately, this has led to the diversion of resources away from what the medical profession does best--the treatment and prevention of injury and disease. "Worse, putting social justice at the core of the public health enterprise undermines individual accountability. People who practice unsafe sex, stick dirty needles in their vein or fail to take their TB medications daily are too often seen as passive victims of malign social forces," writes Satel.

She argues that radical feminism and race-obsessed multiculturalism have no place in the world of medicine. When they have actually secured a place, Satel shows the harm they've done. She describes, for instance, how the Harvard School of Public Health teaches that racial discrimination causes hypertension among African Americans--in short, racism makes you sick. Yet there's no credible evidence to back this startling claim, which may in fact divert attention away from behavioral steps that really can lower blood pressure. Satel has a wonderfully clever term for the people advancing this type of lab-jacket hokum: "indoctrinologist." Theirs is a political vocation, not a medical one. Satel is adept at countering their offensive, but her voice is a lonely one:

Indoctrinologists are making steady inroads in medicine. They now sit at the helm of professional associations and hold impressive posts in schools of public health. They have changed medical school admissions criteria and have infiltrated respected academic journals. They are outspoken, if not shrill, participants in many legislative and political debates.... Their numbers and influence are growing.

That's the bad news. The good news is that Satel has written an outstanding book that exposes their agenda. --John J. Miller