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Coburn vows to continue medical practice
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| Contributor | None Entered |
| Last Edited | None Entered May 14, 2005 06:05am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, May 6, 2005 09:15:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), told a Bartlesville audience on Wednesday that he will not stop being a doctor.
"I'm continuing to practice medicine in a limited amount," he said.
Coburn has been given until Sept. 30 to stop practicing medicine but has said that he will fight the decision. He is only the second doctor to serve in the Senate since the rule was passed by a special Senate committee in 1977. The Senate Ethics Committee told Coburn in December that the rule - adopted by the full Senate in 1977 - "specifically and explicitly includes the practice of medicine among the professional services covered by the prohibition."
Coburn is the first doctor to challenge it.
"My ethical obligation is to the people that were pregnant," Coburn said of delivering babies. "My goal is not to make money."
The 1977 report from the Senate committee that wrote the rule focuses primarily on lawyers - of which there were and are many in the Senate - and the possible conflicts that could arise if lawyers continued to practice law while serving in the Senate.
But the report also shows that the rule "reaches the major professions in addition to law, such as medicine, engineering, architecture and similar types of activities. The committee also intends the ban to reach service as a real estate agent or insurance agent or consultant."
The rule was adopted at a time when scandal and public outcry rocked Congress over a large House and Senate pay increase.
"I'm trying to do the right thing," said Coburn. "If I were out of medicine for six years my knowledge would be diminished." |
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