Frist Treads a Delicate Path in Citing Medical Background

WASHINGTON — As Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist pushed Congress to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case, he drew attention to a part of his resume many expect him to spotlight as he prepares for a likely 2008 presidential bid: the fact that he is a physician.

Polls find that physicians rank among the most trusted professions, and most political experts think Frist's medical background will be an asset for him as a presidential candidate, separating him from the welter of lawyers and career politicians in Congress.

But critics say the Republican senator from Tennessee may have overplayed his hand by offering a medical opinion in the Schiavo case.

In a speech last week on the Senate floor, Frist said that "speaking more as a physician than as a U.S. senator," he believed there was "insufficient information to conclude that Terri Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state."

Frist -- who as a surgeon performed more than 150 heart and lung transplants -- said his conclusion was based on a review of footage of the brain-damaged Florida woman whose parents are seeking to reconnect her feeding tube. He said he also consulted court documents and spoke to a neurologist who examined Schiavo two years ago.

Frist's comments raised eyebrows in the medical community.

Although there are no official rules against the practice, ethicists said, it is generally considered unprofessional for a doctor to make or question a diagnosis on the basis of incomplete information.

"In general, physicians would consider it unprofessional for doctors to take clinical stands on issues without adequate clinical data," said Dr. Neil Wenger, head of the ethics committee at UCLA Medical Center.

William J. Winslade, a bioethicist and law professor at the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, was more direct. Frist "has no business making a diagnosis from a video," he said.

In his comments on the Senate floor, Frist said that based on the videotape of Schiavo and court records, she "does respond" to outside stimuli. "That footage, to me, depicted something very different than persistent vegetative state."

A Frist spokeswoman said Monday that the majority leader was not offering a diagnosis of Schiavo. "What he's saying is, it seems like there is a lot of gray area about whether she is in a persistent vegetative state," said Amy Call.