High-performing doctors willing to work to alleviate the shortage of medical care in the United States should be encouraged to do so, not prevented because of their countries of origin.
The U.S. federal and state governments are taking steps to ameliorate the physician shortage by offering scholarship and loan-repayment options to medical students interested in primary care practice in designated underserved areas.
International trade policies affect the distribution of life-saving medicine, the food market, and the migration of medical personnel from developing countries.
With good planning and good will, medical professionals’ right of conscience and patients’ rights to controversial services can be both protected and accommodated.
Refusals of psychotropic medication by detained criminal defendants raise conflicting dual loyalties for psychiatrists between the duty to treat a patient and the duty to protect society from that patient.