The triumph of socialized medicine

One of the recurring themes at Pillage Idiot -- a theme that fully justifies the entire Pillage Idiot Advisory System -- is the theme of the detached penis.

(They didn't teach you that theme when you studied Shakespeare, did they? What's that? You didn't study Shakespeare because you were too busy reading Toni Morrison? Well, never mind then.)

If you want to understand why I call this a theme, check out here, here, here, here, and here.

Given the subject matter, I'm hesitant to give a "hat tip" to Maryland Conservatarian, who gave me a link to The Corner, where Jonah Goldberg linked this article from the Metro UK: "Row over angry, penis-removing doctor."

Doctors' unions in Romania have criticised a decision to make a surgeon pay £100,000 in damages after he lost his temper and hacked off a patient's penis during surgery.

Now, you can laugh all you want about the fact that the doctors' unions are involved, and that they think damages are unwarranted. But the story gets much better -- or worse, if you're the unfortunate victim. Because the doctor didn't just "hack[] off" the penis. No, that would be too simple. Instead:

Grabbing a scalpel, he sliced off the penis in front of shocked nursing staff, and then placed it on the operating table where he chopped it into small pieces before storming out of the operating theatre at Bucharest hospital.

So back to the unions, which gave an interesting rationale for objecting to the damages:

They say the move sets a dangerous precedent and that Professor Ciomu, a urologist and lecturer in anatomy, has already been punished enough after having his medical licence suspended.

They said he had been under stress and had lost his temper after he accidentally cut the man's urinary channel and 'overreacted' to the situation. He told the court it was a temporary loss of judgement due to personal problems.

Vice-president of the Romanian Doctors Union, Vasile Astarastoae, said: 'Ciomu's case is a dangerous precedent for all Romanian doctors. In future doctors may have to think very carefully about what work they undertake.'

In the future, Romanian patients may have to think very carefully about what illness they have.

Extra: Could this possibly be related? -- "Romanian Charged With Hacking Into U.S. Government Research Computers"