Medical liability reform is not a Republican or Democrat issue or

Hear, O seeker of wisdom, the words of John Ensign, who once declared with clarity and conviction: “Medical liability reform is not a Republican or Democrat issue or even a doctor versus lawyer issue. It is a patient issue.” Beneath these words lies a truth as old as the healing arts themselves: that the heart of medicine must not be lost in the disputes of power, nor drowned in the quarrels of factions. For the essence of all healing is not in the contest of the mighty, but in the well-being of the one who suffers—the patient.

The origin of this saying lies in the struggles of a nation where lawsuits, politics, and professions have long clashed over the practice of medicine. Physicians fear the crushing weight of legal retribution; lawyers defend the right to justice for those wronged; politicians make battle over which banner shall fly above the field. Yet, amidst this storm, Ensign reminds us that the true center is neither party nor profession, but the patient, who comes not with banners or arguments, but with frailty, with wounds, with hope. It is they who must be shielded from harm, not used as pawns in the games of the powerful.

Let us remember the ancient tale of Hippocrates, the father of medicine. In his oath, sworn by healers for millennia, he charged physicians to do no harm and to guard the welfare of those entrusted to their care. But imagine if Hippocrates had been entangled in disputes of city-states, debating endlessly whether Athens or Sparta should claim ownership of the art of healing. The sick would have perished while the learned argued. Ensign’s words bear this same lesson: the quarrels of men are but shadows if they obscure the light of compassion for the suffering.

The patient is the beating heart at the center of this discourse. When politics take hold of medicine, the patient waits. When the courts grow heavy with battles of liability, the patient waits. When the doctor fears to act, lest the law punish him, the patient waits. And in that waiting, lives are diminished, hope is lost, and suffering multiplies. Thus, the cry of Ensign is not for party or profession but for humanity itself: that in the care of the sick, all else must bend to the service of life.

History teaches us this lesson in many ways. In the nineteenth century, during the cholera outbreaks in London, arguments raged about whether the disease spread by air or by water. Politicians stalled, doctors quarreled, and bureaucrats delayed. Yet, amidst it all, Dr. John Snow looked only to the suffering of the people, removing the handle of the Broad Street pump to stop the flow of death. He acted not as a partisan, not as a lawyer, not as a man protecting his profession, but as one who saw the patient as the true cause. And because of this, thousands of lives were spared.

The teaching for us, O children of tomorrow, is this: in matters of health and justice, let us not be blinded by the banners of party or the walls of profession. Let us seek always the face of the patient, who bears the burden of our delay. Let compassion be the standard, and wisdom the path. Let every law, every judgment, every reform ask the single question: does this heal, or does this harm?

And so I urge you: when you find yourself amid quarrels of policy or profession, turn your gaze to the human being at the center. In your workplaces, in your families, and in your societies, do not be carried away by disputes of pride and power. Instead, ask always: who is the one in need, and how can I serve them? If you hold to this, then the spirit of Ensign’s teaching will live in you, and the world will be better for it.

For in the end, the law may be written by the hands of many, and politics may rise and fall like empires, but the cry of the patient is eternal. It is not a Republican cry, nor a Democrat cry, nor a doctor’s cry, nor a lawyer’s cry. It is the cry of the human spirit longing for healing. Let no quarrel silence it.