The false McCoy

Betsy McCaughey, sociopathic liar. No, “compliance with Advanced Directives” does not mean preventing the patient from changing his mind, it means following the patient’s orders.

Betsy McCaughey (turns out to be pronounced “McCoy”) survived her appearance on the Jon Stewart Show.. Stewart did a much better job than most “real” reporters would have done in calling her on her b.s., but she responded like a true sociopath, unabashed when she was caught lying and always ready to tell one more lie.

One point Stewart missed: McCaughey claimed that listing “compliance” with Advanced Directives on the list of evaluation criteria for providers meant that doctors were supposed to prevent patients from changin their minds. False. “Compliance” has to do with doctors and hospitals following the patient’s orders; too often, those orders are ignored, and someone who carefully wrote out a Do Not Intubate order gets a tube shoved down his nose anyway.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com