John Launer: Doctors as activists

Doctor activists are in the news. Sarah Benn, a former GP from Birmingham, has had her medical licence suspended for five months after being arrested for taking part in peaceful protests by Just Stop Oil.1 Medical members of the Extinction Rebellion movement have served jail sentences for taking part in peaceful protests about the climate emergency: they now face disciplinary hearings to determine whether they’ll be struck off.2 It’s tempting to think that medical activism is new, but it isn’t. There’s a distinguished history of doctors, some of them eminent, putting their medical careers and reputations at risk by making social action a priority.3As it happens, two books I’ve just finished recount the stories of such doctors, and they provide examples for us all. Chekhov’s Sakhalin Journey by Jonathan Cole4 describes a journey made by the great Russian dramatist and doctor to investigate an appalling penal colony set up in…
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