Punishment for Public Service
The tendency to paint the opposition as not only wrong but criminally wrong has added tremendous risk to public service. In the current environment, I often find myself asking for written reassurance that I will not be held liable or that my legal costs will be covered by the institution for service on any committee where decisions must be made. The committees on which I have served for which liability is a possibility have included investigations of scientific misconduct and personal misconduct of individual physicians as well as promotion and tenure committees.
Being confronted with the foibles and imperfections of my fellow scientists and physicians is not only distasteful but potentially financially ruinous if I find myself charged with libel as a result. Service on an advisory panel of the FDA is not lucrative and the major returns for this service are found elsewhere. If current trends continue, the result of any decision made in the name of an institution or in the name of the public will carry with it a requirement for legal defense.
The cost of community service may soon become too onerous for most people to participate. In addition to the time taken from other pursuits, the cost of public service now includes the potential for legal action. Pretty soon, community service will be the exclusive domain of the criminal celebrity and all decisions will devolve upon those least likely to offer wise opinion. This regression to the minimum seems to have occurred, to a great extent, in the political world and it is unfortunate, but inevitable, that the divisions and vindictiveness have spread to the rest of us.
Although I am not nearly as accurate a shoe tosser as the supermodel Naomi Campbell nor blessed with the looks of the rock singer Boy George, I would like to take my turn at serving the public. Nonetheless, I do not wish to serve my community while wearing a reflective vest and pushing a broom through the streets of New York. It might be nice, however, to have a safe, non–GI toxic NSAID to treat the inevitable aches and pains resulting from such unusual exertions.
Dr. Cronstein is Paul R. Esserman professor of medicine at NYU School of Medicine in New York City.