Life's Persistent Questions

Can you do me a favor?

Nominate me for the Nobel Prize? It really doesn't matter if it's in Physics or Medicine or Peace or Literature, just write a letter. It would look so nice on my CV.

Apparently that's what a doctor in Florida did with the help of a congressman. Dr. William Hammesfahr first came to my attention because his name was mentioned in numerous online and news reports as the doctor that believes Terri Schiavo can be rehabilitated from her current PVS. These reports inevitably noted that Dr. Hammesfahr is a Nobel nominee. As it turns out, the congressman from Florida is not qualified to nominate someone for Nobel prize, but that didn't stop him to nominate the doctor for both peace and medicine. Media Matters for America has detailed coverage of the interview of the doctor at Fox news, which in light of the background is pretty funny. Someone in the comment section had beaten me to the punch--like me, he had discovered Dr. Hammesfahr has ZERO published peer-reviewed article in the Pubmed database. So good luck on the nomination hope for the Medicine prize.

For comparison, Dr. Ronald Cranford, a neurologist and clinical ethicist in Minnesota, who determined Mrs. Schiavo's PVS and advocated the termination of her feeding tube, has 58 articles on topics such as brain death and terminal sedation. Just compare their CV. Like they say, "We report, you decide."

posted by hedgehog @ 12:09 PM