Medical Panel Steps Out Of Line

From the outset it was hard to justify the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission’s interest in disciplining Spokane County Coroner Dexter Amend. Certainly Amend’s public displays of intolerance and insensitivity deserve censure. And the retired urologist’s controversial conduct no doubt embarrassed many members of the medical profession. But that’s no reason that Amend’s license to practice medicine should have been in jeopardy over acts that had nothing to do with his being a physician.

However, that didn’t stop the Medical Quality Assurance Commission. It rationalized that Amend signed letters and death certificates as a doctor and relied on his medical background in making some decisions and, therefore, was fair game.

So, the commission launched an investigation into four Spokane County death cases involving Amend. Now the fivephysician panel has concluded that Amend was guilty of “moderate” unprofessional conduct in three of them and has ordered a $1,000 fine and 20 hours of sensitivity training. (This, after months of tantalizing Amend’s most vehement detractors with expectations of the ultimate indignity - banishment from the medical profession.)

Sensitivity training? Sensitivity training is for people who didn’t realize they were being insensitive. Amend has made it clear that he knows what he’s saying and believes his reason for saying it outweighs any feelings that might be bruised in the process.

Often, his reason for saying the things that bring him to public attention is the advancement of his personal moral code, specifically a crusading opposition to homosexuality and any other sexual practices he considers deviant.

On that score, Amend has his allies, but few in the community would condone his pattern of tactless comments to grieving families. Perhaps the most conspicuous example was quizzing the brother of a boy who died in a fire about whether the victim had masturbated.

Those incidents involved Amend as coroner, not as a urologist.

As an elected public official, Amend should answer to the voters as well as to individuals with whom he deals in his official capacity. Indeed, five offended families have filed complaints against Amend with the county, and two of those have since been filed as lawsuits. And although a recall effort against Amend failed to get past the state Supreme Court, Spokane County voters got rid of the coroner’s office itself, creating a medical examiner system instead. The new system begins after Amend’s current term ends.

The people, not the commission or the medical profession, are Amend’s bosses. Any elected official whose livelihood depends on pleasing his professional colleagues ceases to represent the public.

Critics say the Medical Quality Assurance Commission produced a timid finding and a lenient penalty. The problem isn’t the commission’s decision, but its very involvement in a matter between a public official and the public.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Doug Floyd/For the editorial board