Dr. Sanjay Gupta is not the right choice for Surgeon General
As a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer I have represented the family of an autistic child for severe damage to the child caused by the use of facilitated communication (FC). As soon as I saw that Dr. Sanjay Gupta was being considered for Surgeon General I was both surprised and dismayed. Dr. Gupta has actively supported facilitated communication (FC) as a valid means of helping autistic people communicate. FC has been thoroughly discredited by the scientific community, a fact which Dr. Gupta chooses to ignore. It appears that Dr. Gupta has been chosen for his good looks and his ability to entertain the public with medical anecdotes and not his scientific credentials. This President has promised to put science back in its rightful place. By supporting FC Dr. Gupta has demonstrated that he is no scientist.
I have written a letter to the Obama administration and everyone else I can think of in opposition to this appointment. Please feel free to copy it and/or expound on it and send it to the members of the Senate Health Committee. The letter and committee members are listed below:
I am a Chicago lawyer and a long time supporter of the President. I am writing to express my strong opposition to Dr. Sanjay Gupta as U.S. Surgeon General.Dr. Gupta has actively promoted facilitated communication (FC) as a valid way to help autistic people communicate. FC has been universally discredited scientifically, a fact Dr. Gupta has chosen to ignore. Consider this small sample of the vast sources rejecting the science of FC:
1. Facilitated Communication the Ultimate Fad treatment; Jacobson, Foxx, Mulick (2005)
2. Prisoners of Science, Frontline 1993
3. American Psychological Association position paper on FC.
4. Facilitated Communication and the Power of Belief: How Time Magazine Got it WrongNot only is FC a useless therapy for the autistic it is harmful to the children and families victimized by its use. Instead of being treated with recognized techniques to teach communication, autistic children lose valuable time in their formative years having their hands manipulated like puppets. This has no value for the child, but is financially very rewarding to the people selling FC.
I recently settled a matter with a hospital in Chicago for malpractice solely because FC was used. The responsible hospital paid $1 million to settle before we even filed suit and demanded a confidentiality agreement. The parents of the child in my case were actually convinced by a doctor that their child was a genius trapped in an autistic body. After nine years of FC the family finally realized that they were the victims of the pseudoscientific hoax that is FC.
In his inaugural speech the President said “…we will restore science to its rightful place…” Dr. Gupta is a fine television personality, but no supporter of Facilitated Communication is fit for the country’s top scientific post.
Christopher T. Hurley
Democrats by Rank
Edward Kennedy (MA)
Christopher Dodd (CT)
Tom Harkin (IA)
Barbara A. Mikulski (MD)
Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Patty Murray (WA)
Jack Reed (RI)
Bernard Sanders (I) (VT)
Sherrod Brown (OH)
Robert P. Casey, Jr. (PA)
Kay Hagan (NC)
Jeff Merkley (OR)
Republicans by Rank
Michael B. Enzi (WY)
Judd Gregg (NH)
Lamar Alexander (TN)
Richard Burr (NC)
Johnny Isakson (GA)
John McCain (AZ)
Orrin G. Hatch (UT)
Lisa Murkowski (AK)
Tom Coburn, M.D. (OK)
Pat Roberts (KS)
Bookmark: 
