Sorry!

I confess, I come from a sorry nation. And I'll hasten to add I mean I come from a nation that likes to say "sorry" not a sorry-assed nation (although many Americans might think and say otherwise about Britain when they feel sufficiently peeved at their ancestors old-aged petulance). Anyway, the reason I mention it was last week I was listen to some commentary on a suggestion made in Washington on how to ease the medical lawsuit problem in the USA.

The solution was simple - just encourage doctors to admit and apologize for their mistakes. Yes, doctors do make mistakes, they are after all only human (although Erin over at Chicken or Beef will tell us some believe they can walk on water and perform other miracles). Currently when doctors make mistakes they are trained, perhaps even required, to deny any wrong doing and frequently break off all contact with the patient or the patients relatives. The assumption is that a lawsuit will be forthcoming and you don't want to be opening your mouth and saying anything as stupid as "oopsy, I made a mistake - my bad" because you know, that's just asking for a lawsuit.

However the rationale behind the admit and apologize theory is that it is precisely doctors refusal to admit any blame, and their willingness to run away from an awkward situation that infuriates patients and relatives who are on the receiving end. If the doctor can show some humility and stay involved in the patient treatment process after the fact then perhaps the instinct to sue until you're blue can be appeased.

They question is, will it work?

Well it seems those in the know in Washington seemed to think this was just not going to fly. You see what we need is more legislation, more paper work, more limits, more legal fees. Yes, just solve the problems of legal costs with more legal papering over the cracks...

From my perspective sorry goes a long way. Not in the face of willful negligence of course, but for an honest mistake or accident, one that is learned from and not repeated ad-infinitum (see "The Fog of War") what can you do? However that's just my quaint perspective on the problem because as I mentioned before, I come from a sorry nation. From the day I arrived in the USA the fear of litigation was rammed down my throats - everyone was quick to instruct me on how not to say anything, not anything, if I got in an accident. "Don't apologize!", they would say, "that implies guilt which implies blame and may be used in evidence..." etc. etc.

As an empath who would normally be quick to apologize even for other peoples mistakes that came as a hard lesson but after about 10 years my instinct to apologize has mostly been wrung out of me. Was that a good thing? Hardly I would say. From my memories of that sorry nation I came from I would say life in an apologetic attitude that may suffer the occasional empty sorry is a better than that in a nation of fear of litigation that rarely if ever offers a true and sincere apology.