Legislating Common Sense

This week’s Well-Intentioned But Ineffectual Nanny State Award goes to California, for enacting a law requiring doctors to conduct a physical examination before performing cosmetic surgery. At the Orange County Register‘s In Your Face blog, Colin Stewart writes:

As this blog commented last year, passing a law requiring doctors to examine their patients is like mandating that surgeons wash their hands before an operation. Anyone who would ignore such a basic safety precaution isn’t likely to worry about the prospect of a technical infraction, yet violating the Donda West Law would not be a criminal offense.

Stewart recommends that patients find out whether their doctor has been the subject of complaints; patients’ research will protect them better than a law with no penalties can.

Here in Missouri, we don’t have as many cosmetic surgeons as they do in California, but we have our own version of the nanny state. Targets include kids riding bicycles, playground equipment sitting in the sun, and now haunted houses.