If nothing else, break up this affair

As noted in this article, doctors stand to profit greatly from intercourse with pharmaceutical companies. Here we have the suggestion that the federal government take more power, involving itself in relationships between corporations and professionals in related fields. This, viewed from this fundamental perspective, may seem like a bad idea, granting more power to what seem already to many a federal government swollen with powers, at a time when less federal interference might seem the direction the pendulum aught to swing.

However, in this particular case, the corporations under examination appear even more swollen and powerful than the government, or at least in ways that are more disgusting and potentially malefic, and the professionals happen to be more directly involved in the health and survival of those they serve than perhaps any but those patients themselves. In this particular case, as there exists the potential for mutual backscratching between corporations and professionals, and to the detriment of the public whom it seems they aught to serve, it seems here reasonable to ask the government to offer its people some protection from this abusive practice.

This article addresses these points, with specifics, confirming that this practice is in fact in effect, and does in fact benefit pharmaceutical companies and doctors alike. While the article does not support its claim that by presenting material provided to them by pharmaceutical companies, doctors "cease to be unbiased caregivers for their patients," though, in fairness, this is an opinion-editorial piece, and it seems true intuitively, and frankly, the exploration of that topic is not well suited to the medium.

All in all, this is a well-written and effective article, asserting ideas with which I largely agree. As members of this society, and particularly of roughly its middle-class, we would all do well to take note of this, and, until greater transparency and control are required of our health care professionals, we should not take prescriptions blindly, that is without recognition of the state of 'affairs' between doctors and corporations that provide them with incentives to peddle their wares; in short, maintain perspective!