Sunday, January 25, 2009

Ethics Breach Surfaces

According to River Ave Blues, among the many accusations surfacing in Joe Torre's new books, one is that the Steinbrenners were informed by team medical personnel about Torre's prostate cancer before Torre himself .

There are three distinct possibilities here:

1) The above is true and results in a distinct breach of medical ethics. Even if doctor-patient confidentiality, for whatever reason I don't know, doesn't exist, there isn't really a question that an adult, conscious patient of sound mind has a right to know about his or her own medical condition before anyone else, including his or her employers.

2) The above is false and results in a little fuzzier but still pretty distinct breach of journalism ethics. It is hard to believe that either Torre or a writer as respected as Verducci would blatantly make something up, so it's possible that Verducci didn't do a very good job checking his sources, which is hard to imagine when it's Torre's book! If Torre willingly and knowingly consented to let a false allegation appear, then Torre pretty much loses whatever credibility he had. If Torre willingly consented to let the allegation appear and believed that it was true, it's a different story, but that said, Torre's not an idiot. It seems hard to believe that he could let himself think such a thing.

3) The best case scenario is that it is unfounded internet rumor. In which case, there is still an ethics breach, though Torre, the team doctors and the Steinbrenners get to keep their name.

9 comments:

  1. Rebecca-

    When players/coaches and the manager sign contracts with minor or major league teams they agree in advance to allow the sharing of any and all pertinent medical information with the team. While this is not a pitcher with an arm injury, there really is no breach of confidentiality here.

    YankeeGM

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  2. YankeeGM: It's not so much that there's a breach of confidentiality, it's that others were (allegedly) notified before the patient.

    It might not be inscribed by law, but it's still a breach of ethics. As I said, Torre has the right to know about his own condition before his employers. Even if, by law or contract the doctor has to tell Steinbrenner, that still doesn't mean Torre shouldn't be notified first.

    Cheers.

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  3. In other words, when the Boss told him at the meeting about his prostate cancer, Torre hadn't been informed about it yet? Or were they informed at the same time (approximately) and the Boss brought it up first?
    FanSince48

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  4. Anon: My understanding is that Torre hadn't been informed yet.

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  5. Rebecca while I agree that a patient should know his/her diagnosis before their employer, Torre did not feel the need to go public with this before he wrote a book. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer years ago and continued to sign new contracts with the Yankees. Couldn't have been that offended!

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  6. Rebecca: The severity of the ethical breach (if any) may lay in whether or not the information was withheld from Torre until Steinbrenner could confront him with that fact. It's possible (without reading the book) that the report was mailed to him and given orally to the Boss.

    My copy is on order, and I'll have a better grasp of the situation later. FWIW, I happen to be a physician.

    FanSince48

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  7. Anon: Feel free to shoot me an email when you find out--I haven't ordered a copy of the book.

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  8. I don't see an ethical breach here. I would think Cashman knows more about Posada's shoulder at this point than maybe even Posada himself. Joe Torre was team personnel. He wore a uniform and had the number 6. The organization has every right to know whether or not their $5M man would be physically capable of running their billion dollar franchise. Players must submit to physicals before they join new teams. Its all about protecting the investment. Even top CEOs are required to divulge all medical issues which may have an effect on the company's earning capacity. And for a business as well run as the Yankees I would argue the team manager has a heck of a lot more to do with the value of the franchise than any executives (including GMs). This is just good business. If Torre wanted privacy he should have demanded to use his own personal physician.

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  9. EdB: I agree with your stance, but I think the question here is, as I posted before, if the information was withheld from Torre until Steinbrenner could confront him with that fact when they met (breach), or was a written medical report sent out to Torre and the Boss at essentially the same time (no breach, even if orally communicated to Steinbrenner so he would get it more rapidly).

    FanSince48

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