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August 21, 2006
The Hippocratic Oaf

A doctor faces charges of supporting terrorism in Manhattan for having taken an oath of membership into al-Qaeda and pledging his medical services to fellow terrorists. Dr. Rafiq Sabir and his attorneys argue that his Hippocratic oath requires him to attend to all who are ill or injured, and therefore he has done nothing wrong:

Dr. Sabir, of Boca Raton, Fla., is one of four co-defendants charged with a loosely connected plot to aid Al Qaeda that prosecutors made public last year. In a Bronx apartment in late May 2005, Dr. Sabir swore fealty to Osama bin Laden and pledged to provide medical assistance to jihadists who were wounded while training, a criminal complaint charged.

But in a recent court filing, Mr. Sabir's attorneys, Edward Wilford and Natali Todd, argue that the prosecution is unconstitutional because it impinges on a doctor's ability to practice medicine.

"As a medical doctor, Dr. Sabir is committed to saving lives, regardless of the status of the individuals because to do otherwise, would be to violate his cannons of ethics," his attorneys wrote. "A doctor, similar to an attorney, should not be limited to who he can treat, however unpopular such an individual may be."

I've looked through my copy of the Constitution this morning, and I do not see any language that grants doctors a guaranteed right to practice. In fact, the law has a built-in presumption against medical practice, as doctors must have state licenses in order to treat patients. Failure to do so usually results in prosecution, in some cases felony prosecution. These lawyers must have learned constitutional law in the same colleges that perceive a right to health care in the founding document, as well as the right to abortion.

Of course, this defense hinges on an absurd notion that doctors can conspire with anyone and avoid legal responsibility as long as they act as a medic at some point. What's next, Mafia doctors who do ride-alongs with button men to treat wounds received on jobs that go bad? Anyone acting in support of a criminal conspiracy has legal responsibility for the underlying crime, regardless of which professional skills they bring to bear.

The prosecution has one big hurdle to overcome, and that is the material support statute itself. It contains an exception for providing medicine, and the defense will also rely on that language to argue that Sabir cannot be prosecuted for pledging his medical skills to the terrorists. Congress hardly intended to allow Islamist doctors to escape the law when they joined terror cells; the intent was to keep federal prosecutors from charging doctors who treated injured or sick terrorists as part of their normal practice. Sabir should not have the ability to join terrorist groups without fear of prosecution simply because he made it through medical school.

Sphere It Digg! View blog reactions
Posted by Ed Morrissey at August 21, 2006 5:25 AM

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