(Too) Candid Cameras In the last year, I've written quite a bit about malpractice - from both sides of the spectrum. For instance, I've told you about some extreme cases of malpractice that spotlight the incompetence rampant in modern medical care (still the 3rd-leading cause of death in this country). On the other hand, I've also talked quite a bit about the insanely high costs of medical malpractice insurance - spurred ever higher by the greed of tort lawyers, the victim mentality pervasive in American culture, and the spinelessness of liberal courts. This is a primary driver of higher health care costs for all people. Last but not least, I've mentioned a few ways in which doctors are fighting back. I told you about a group of Texas doctors' attempt to start an Internet "blacklist" of malpractice lawyers and their clients (quickly struck down by a Federal court). I've told you about how many doctors are switching from high-risk specialties like obstetrics into more sedate realms like family practice... And soon, we may add one more thing to this list: Videotaped births. According to a recent Associated Press report, a growing number of doctors nationwide are putting a stop to the practice of videotaping live births because of the fear that these tapes will be used against them in court. Currently, the American Medical Association has no official policy regarding videotaping of births. Typically, such calls are left to the discretion of the doctor. However, more and more hospitals are now forming such policies to protect themselves against lawsuits, the article reveals. Naturally, the lawyers are all for videotaping of births. One such attorney quoted for the piece claims that doctors should be the ones most grateful for videotaping of birth, since it could insulate them from frivolous liability claims in the event things go wrong or complications develop in the course of birthing. For me, this is a hard call to make. I'd rather eat a pound of nails than side with the tort lawyers, but as haphazard as modern medical care has become - and as green as a lot of today's doctors are - I can't say videotaping is such a bad idea, as long as parents keep things in perspective. Births don't always go like clockwork. Sometimes things get rough, and sometimes babies are born imperfect... And it isn't always somebody's fault **************************************************** The good, the bad, and the ugly - of childrearing Speaking of imperfect children, a recent study reveals a regrettable, yet apparently natural tendency that should make all parents (or prospective parents) shudder with guilt... Ugly Child Syndrome. Now, that's not an official name - it's a tag I hung on a phenomenon I just learned about. But politically correct to say or not, it's an entirely accurate name for what's actually happening. And it confirms every plain-looking person's belief (along with more than a few sociological studies' findings) that the "pretty people" have advantages in life. Here's what I'm talking about: According to some University of Alberta research, parents take noticeably better care of attractive children than unattractive ones. Based on over 400 detailed, anonymous observations of parent-child interactions in 14 Canadian supermarkets, parents whose children were ranked by researchers near the top of a 1-10 scale of attractiveness were more than three times as likely to be strapped into shopping carts as were those who scored the lowest on the attractiveness scale. These observers also noted similarly attractiveness-correlated disparities in the number of times these children were allowed to undertake dangerous activities like standing up in carts, the number of times they were allowed to wander out of the parent's sight, and the number of times parents' attention lapsed with regard to their children. According to the AP piece, both the study's authors and its critics disagree about whether the presence or absence of attractiveness determines level of concern for the child, or whether greater levels of care and attention leads to greater attractiveness among children. That's sort of a chicken-or-the-egg argument, if you ask me. The bottom line is the same either way, and it's something we've all known all along. Life isn't always fair, and the "pretty people" get more attention and have an advantage from the very beginning. Whether this is sociological or biological in origin is irrelevant. The trick to turning out right no matter how attractive you are is perspective: In other words, not letting your attractiveness advantage make you self-centered, or not letting your attractiveness disadvantage make you bitter. It's not the cards that matter so much as how we play them. But loving parents (and grandparents) who think all children are beautiful no matter what they look like help a lot. Be one, huh? Telling the ugly truth - but with a beautiful perspective, William Campbell Douglass II, MD | 
