Comments on: Fighting Anonymous Libel

By: nikki jenkins

nikki jenkins — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:22:10 +0000

Turning the tables just a little…what about the doctors who write libellous statements about their patients? Often entered under “dr unknown”. I guess what’s good for the goose is good for the gander! No pseudonym for me, I write under my own name but give anonimity to the doctors who nearly killed me and the ones that have lied and forged notes in order to cover the backs of colleagues. What does that say? It says patients’ have no legal recourse while pointy heads’ in authority positions walk all over us without their actions being exposed.

By: Zak Greant

Zak Greant — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 01:12:06 +0000

I’m not so sure that this is an anonymous speech problem. If the speech is truly anonymous, the how would doctor identify the patient to enforce the waiver?

It seems to be more of a chilling effect – both on a patient’s willingness to criticize their physician and on the relationship between the patient and their physician.

By: Harry Lewis

Harry Lewis — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:45:13 +0000

Makes sense, I think. IANAE (I am not an economist). I was assuming strong competition by patients to a limited supply of doctors (specialists, say), which might put the doctors in a position to pick and choose their patients (as some doctors can already do).
Of course, if we move to a more socialized system of medicine, perhaps everything in this thread becomes irrelevant.

By: allan

allan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 22:53:58 +0000

Doesn’t this depend on how you model the market for MD’s? If patients are not scarce, and physicians have a weak preference to distribute these, then unless free speech preferences are both strong and widely held, you wouldn’t see an equilibrium allowing patients to leverage their preferences.

This is similar to the market for privacy in a competitive market: you can still have multiple competitors but if the merchant is not competing on the number of customers, there will be no privacy attached to the goods/services by any firm.