Home Topics Index Download
Transcript 349A — Litigation and the Christian
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Good evening, Mr. Camping. We have Christian attorneys, and they are necessary. But supposing a patient is injured by a doctor. I believe a patient should not sue for malpractice. And I'd like your opinion on that.
HC: All right. Fine. Thank you.
The question is raised, If we are being treated by a doctor, and if he makes a mistake in his treatment, so that we suffer for it, are we to sue that doctor for malpractice? We know, of course, that this is a very common thing that is occurring in the world today. People sue for anything and all that they can. And certainly if they believe that they can hang something on a doctor for doing a poor diagnosis, or whatever, they will try to sue for this.
I would have to agree with our caller. I really don't think that a Christian would sue for malpractice. First of all, there is no doctor that knows everything about us. We recognize that doctors are human beings, who have feet of clay. They are not all wise. They can make mistakes. They do their best in trying to serve us. We try to find a doctor that we trust. But there is no perfect doctor, as there is no perfect carpenter, or no perfect bricklayer, or no perfect cook in the kitchen. Mistakes can occur to any one of us.
This business of suing, just for any reason, I think is contrary to everything the Bible teaches. Certainly we know this, that God has given us the courts to right wrongs, to adjudicate matters. But if a doctor has, let's say, operated when there should not have been an operation, how can money right that wrong? Money is not going to do this. He cannot restore what he has cut away. That's an impossibility. So a suit just seems to be out of the question.
Of course if certain medical bills were developed because of a doctor's poor workmanship, it may be that it might be necessary to get some help from the courts if he was not willing to waive some bills, set aside some of his bills. But ordinarily I think that a Christian has to be very very careful before he goes to court for this or that.