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William Cooper: Death Of A Conspiracy Salesman
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From The New England Journal of Medicine
The Hippocratic Oath, like Handel's Messiah, is heard once a year. At medical school graduation ceremonies around the nation, 20,000 voices intone modernized, bowdlerized versions of the ancient pledge. For the rest of the year, it goes silent, except for an occasional invocation of one or another of its phrases to make a point about a contentious issue, such as assisted suicide or abortion. Many contemporary medical ethicists dismiss it as antiquated and irrelevant or condemn it as an insidious endorsement of medical paternalism. Steven Miles wishes to pluck the oath out of its ritualistic niche, refurbish its meaning, and show its relevance for modern medical ethics. Miles is neither a classical scholar nor a historian of medicine. He is a practicing internist, a leader in the field of medical ethics, and a voice in health policy. (He also ran a creditable primary campaign for a Senate seat.) He has immersed himself in the literature about the origins and exegesis of the oath and works through its phrases with admirable skill. Although a proper historian might criticize an occasional interpretation of the author's, Miles's reading of the oath is illuminating. He attempts to place this mysterious document, written 2400 years ago by unknown hands, in the cultural context of Greek medicine and morality. However, his chief concern is to reveal the oath's relevance for the practice of medicine and for health policy in the modern world. Using the familiar format of grand rounds, he posits a clinical case or health policy issue for each phrase of the oath and asks the Hippocratic physician to comment. This literary device works well enough, although one might wish for more cogent cases in several instances (as happens, of course, in actual grand rounds). Miles examines the oft-cited phrases about "use of deadly drugs" and "abortifacients," demonstrating that they are unlikely maxims against euthanasia and abortion but offering plausible explanations of the terms' original meaning and relevance to modern medical ethics. He finds, as few commentators have, a dimension of social justice in the oath by distinguishing between the public and private activities of the Greek physician, both of which were governed by concepts of beneficence and justice. He concludes with a pertinent insight: noting that the oath, unlike modern codes and principles, was composed to be proclaimed in the first person, he writes that "its authors spoke explicitly of the necessity for each physician to reveal his professional moral commitments. The first-person voice may be part of the energy behind the Oath's endurance." Finally, teachers of medical ethics may appreciate Miles's outline of a course designed around the phrases of the oath. Albert R. Jonsen, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2004 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.
"Miles's reading of the oath is illuminating." -New England Journal of Medicine
" The Hippocratic Oath and the Ethics of Medicine contains a wealth of background material. It is concise, well written, and intellectually nourishing, a road map for exploration into antiquity. It is a must for scholars and an interesting read for anyone concerned with medical ethics. --JAMA
"This is a book that every medical student should read cover to cover as should any physician or allied health care worker. Indeed, it is a book that the layman would find profitable, informative and in places amusing." --Erich H. Loewy, American Journal of Bioethics
"Despite the influence of the Hippocratic Oath on Western medicine, few comprehensive analyses of the Oath have been performed. As a result, this text is an important contribution to the medical ethics literature. It is easy to read, comprehensive, and well referenced." --Mayo Clinical Proceedings
"...works through its phrases with admirable skill. . . . Miles reading of the oath is illuminating. . . . He finds, as few commentators have, a dimension of social justice in the oath by distinguishing between the public and private activities of the Greek physician, both of which were governed by concepts of beneficence and justice. He concludes with a pertinent insight: noting that the oath, unlike modern codes and principles was composed to be proclaimed in the first person, he writes that its "authors spoke explicitly of the necessity for each physician to reveal his professional moral commitments. The first person voice may be part of the energy behind the Oaths endurance." Finally, teachers of medical ethics may appreciate Miles's outline of a course designed around the phrases of the oath." --New England Journal of Medicine
"The author's use of clinical vignettes to provide a modern application of the Oath is engaging and successful. This book is unique to the field. Little has been written about the relevane of the Oath to modern medicine, as many have thought the Oath was irrelevant to the practice of modern medicine. This book provides a very serious, compelling challenge to that assumption."--Doody's
08/12/2005
William Cooper DID NOT shoot anyone in the face. Check the superior court records in Arizona! It's all public information! And, you simply have to look up the newspaper articles about William Cooper and how he died. It wasn't the regular police, the S.W.A.T. team came to his house to serve him with an assault warrant(because he said if anyone came onto his property he'd shoot them for trespassing). He tried to run away from them. The funny thing is, William Cooper only had one leg (which he lost while government agents attempted to kill him before). How can a man with one leg run from the S.W.A.T team?
Anyways, you must read, "Behold a Pale Horse", by William Cooper, before you read this book. William Cooper was a smart man and definatley a patriot.
01/03/2002
In the tightly knit UFO community, the name of William Cooper was for many years famous or infamous, depending on your perspective. There are few researchers and publishers in the field who did not at some point have mostly unpleasant and decidedly bizarre encounters with Cooper.
There are even legends to the effect that fistfights were not uncommon when Cooper came to lecture at UFO conferences around the country. Some people just couldn't handle what they took to be Cooper's arrogance and tendencies toward outright character defamation when some unlucky someone crossed the line Cooper had fanatically scratched in his personal and very internalized sand.
So it was not much of a surprise to the UFO community in general when it was reported that Cooper had died in November of 2001 in a confrontation with the sheriff's department in Eager, Arizona. Cooper had always intended to go out in a blaze of glory defendindg his radical beliefs, and while even his closest followers denied that his death had anything to do with his rabblerousing about the New World Order, in some way he got his wish.
Which brings us to "William Cooper: Death of a Conspiracy Salesman," edited -the list goes on and on.
Cooper also openly stated his belief that both the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Oklahoma City bombing were carried out world" author Norman Mailer raised the same possibility in an interview with "The London Times" in early 2002. Whether or not either gentlemen is correct in that assessment remains to be seen of course.
The book also includes several different newspaper reports on the actual circumstances surrounding Cooper's violent demise, an event that received surprisingly little coverage outside of the Arizona region where it took place. Given that Rush Limbaugh and even President Clinton had commented publicly on Cooper in the years before his death, both calling him a dangerous fanatic, as well as the fact that Cooper's weekly radio show was later listed as among the primary political influences on Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, one would think Cooper's death would have rated at least some national headlines.
Be that as it may, if you are interested in learning more about Cooper or simply want to see what one more militia man had to say before he bought it, then "Death of a Conspiracy Salesman" is well worth its cover price and the short time it will take to read it.
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