Do No Harm (organization)

Do No Harm is a United States medical and political advocacy group that opposes gender-affirming care and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in medicine and medical education. The group lobbies state legislatures to ban gender-affirming care for youth. It argues that efforts to recruit a more diverse group of medical practitioners will result in lower standards of care, and that diversity training within the health care system places politics ahead of care.

History

The group was founded in 2022 by Stanley Goldfarb, a retired kidney specialist and former associate dean of curriculum at University of Pennsylvania Medical School, with funding from Joseph Edelman.^[1][2][3] The group's initial focus was opposing anti-racism in healthcare education and hiring.^[4] In January 2023 they announced they were adding an initiative to "protect minors from gender ideology".^[5]

The group was formed to "[protect] patients and physicians from woke healthcare", according to an April 2022 press release.^[6][7]

Gender-affirming care

According to the Associated Press, the group by 2023 had "evolved into a significant leader in statehouses seeking to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youths".^[1] It developed a model legislation state legislatures could introduce to ban such care; by May 2023 the model legislation had been introduced in Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia.^[1][6]

According to the Associated Press, the model legislation has been criticized for "using technical medical terminology as political rhetoric to scare people".^[1] According to Columbia University's Jack Drescher, editor of the gender dysphoria section of the American Psychiatric Association's 2022 diagnostic manual update, the model legislation language is "designed to inflame".^[4]

Diversity

According to Goldfarb, efforts by medical schools to recruit a diverse group of students meant "we’re not going to look for the best and the brightest. We’re going to look for people who are just OK to make sure we have the right mixture of ethnic groups in our medical schools.”^[1]

Litigation

Do No Harm has filed multiple lawsuits against corporations, institutions, and the government.^[8]

• Khatibi v. Medical Board of California
• Do No Harm v. Eddings
• Do No Harm v. Health Affairs
• Do No Harm v. Pfizer, Inc. In September 2022, Do No Harm sued Pfizer for excluding white and Asian applicants from its Breakthrough Fellowship program, which at the time required applicants to be black, Hispanic, or Native American. The lawsuit was dismissed in December 2022.^[9] In February 2023, Pfizer updated the requirements for applicants to the program; people of any racial or ethnic background can now apply, as long as they have "demonstrated commitment and ability to advance diversity, equity and inclusion for Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic and Native Americans at Pfizer, in particular growing the pipeline of Black/African American, Latino/Hispanic and Native Americans at Pfizer".^[10][11] Shortly after, Do No Harm announced its intent to proceed with the lawsuit to "ensure that Pfizer does not continue or resume its racial discrimination that has no place in society", and filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.^{[12][needs update]}
• Colville v. Becerra

Do No Harm Action

In 2023 the group incorporated a second group, Do No Harm Action, which operates as a lobbying arm.^[1]

References

This page was last edited on 22 April 2024, at 15:56