Tafties - The Taft School

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The Freedom To People need freedom to take responsibility. Accountability should be based on accomplishment, not bureaucratic conformity. We must embrace human differences, not try to stamp people out of the same legal mold. Make a Difference By Philip K. Howard ’66
A t lunch one day with a close friend, a respected journalist, i mentioned that a broad coali- tion had come together behind the idea of creating expert health courts� By making justice reliable, i explained, doctors would no longer have the incentive to squan- der billions in defensive medicine� With an expert court that could sort through the com- plexities of medical judgment, doctors would feel more comfortable being open about un- certainties and errors� patients injured by mis- takes would get paid more quickly and reliably� We’ve asked law to do too much—trying to enforce fairness in daily relations is not freedom, but a form of utopia that predictably degenerates into squealing demands for me, me, me. Eyes flashing, she interrupted. “Who would guarantee that these judges weren’t in the doctors’ pockets?” I suggested that the judges could be appointed through a neutral screening panel. The retort was immediate: “Who will appoint the screening panel?” Reputation and professional character should stand for something, I suggested. After all, we can’t abdicate responsibility just because that involves the exercise of human judgment. As I talked, the journalist—remember, this is a friend—looked at me as if I’d been caught cheating. There’s a lot going on in that little exchange. The distrust of authority is palpable. The core assumption is that society can be organized without human intervention. The idea of a judge making legal rulings on standards of care struck her as an invitation to abuse, a form of tyranny instead of a key ingredient of the rule of law. This is the mind-set of our time. No idea is more unpalatable to the modern mind than giving someone authority to make choices that affect other people. That’s why we have law, or so we believe—to dictate or oversee almost any life activity. Law, we think, Taft Bulletin Spring 2009 25
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