After leaving the office, Bert had one small drink. Then he got into his car and started home. On the way, he was injured in an accident. Passers-by took him to the office of Doctor Brown. Unhappily, the doctor, a strict teetotaler, smelled liquor on Bert's breath and refused to treat him. The delay in finding another doctor supposedly aggravated Bert's injuries. He later sued Doctor Brown for refusing to treat him.
"By holding himself out as a doctor, he invited sick and injured persons to come to him," counsel for Bert argued. "Therefore he owed them at least emergency treatment. It is lucky that Bert didn't die."
"A physician should be free to decide whom he'll treat, regardless of his reasons," Doctor Brown's attorney replied. "In this instance, the good doctor thought Bert was drunk, and he consistently declined to treat drunken persons."
If you were the judge, how would you decide this one?
Bert failed to collect. The court said, "A physician or surgeon is not bound to render professional services to everyone who applies.... The law did not compel him to accept the injured man as a patient."
Based upon a 1931 North Carolina case.
-- Bruce M. Jones
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