Medicine: The AMA Gets (Even More) Political

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Has the beleaguered American Medical Association made another dubious decision? An AMA source says panic over potential wrath from Republicans was the prime reason for the firing last week of GEORGE LUNDBERG, 65, longtime editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, who the AMA said was booted for "inappropriately and inexcusably interjecting JAMA into the middle of a debate that has nothing to do with science or medicine." The sin? Lundberg published a study--begun in 1991, analyzed in '95 and presented to JAMA in late '98--on the attitudes of U.S. college students toward sex. Among the findings: 59% of the student group did not view a person who has had oral sex as having "had sex," which could be seen as supportive of Bill Clinton. The firing is the latest in a string of controversies. In 1997 the AMA agreed to endorse Sunbeam medical equipment in what many saw as a conflict of interest. Last year it alienated conservatives by supporting a health-care proposal to make HMOs liable for malpractice. Lundberg's lawyer disparaged the group for interfering in the "inviolable ground of editorial independence" and said his client may sue.

--By Harriet Barovick/ New York and Dick Thompson/Washington