Tasteless photo

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 44, No. 7, September 2002, Page 339 Letters
By: Jim Gilmore

The BCMA should be ashamed of the cover illustration for the leaflet “7800 Doctors Have Done Everything They Can.” Not for the inside copy, which was well written and organized, but for the picture of a physician, his face etched in pain, his mask hanging loosely around his neck, a pair of glasses in one hand. Had he just delivered the heartbreaking and tragic news to the parents of a child he could not save?

No, he was reacting to the doctors’ labor dispute with the provincial government. A labor dispute!

It was tasteless and offensive, trivializing the agony of the times when a physician does have to tell a survivor of the death of a loved one.

—Jim Gilmore
BCMA Communications Director, 1973–93

Jim Gilmore. Tasteless photo. BCMJ, Vol. 44, No. 7, September, 2002, Page(s) 339 - Letters.


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Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

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