DEREGISTERED DOCTOR

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 7, 3 October 1944, Page 3

DEREGISTERED DOCTOR

Appeal Against Order ? Dismissed An appeal by George Brownlee Isdale, medical practilioncr, of Ngaruawahia, from an order made by the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) last July, on the application of the Medical Council, directing that his name be removed from the Medical Register was dismissed in a unanimous judgment delivered yesterday by the Court of Appeal sitting in Wellington. The judginent of Mr. Justice Blair, Mr. Justice Kennedy ami Mr. Justice Finlay rejected the contentions on behalf of appellant regarding the interpretation to be given to the relevant provisions of the Medical Practitioners Act, 1914, and 'made the comment, that there could be no question brt that Parliament had been concerned in the public interest to ensure that no unwort-hy person should enjoy or continue to enjoy the benefits of registration.! The conclusion thus reached raised for consideration the question whether appellant had been guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect in: that he did, without justification on medical grounds., artificially induce the termination of pregnancy in one or more of.the women whose names Were mentioned in the proceedings. On that topic, the judgment stated, the Court entertained no doubt. At no point in the proceedings, despite an abundance of opportunity, hud appellant given any information that would .tend to dissipate that conclusion. “Such conduct as that of which ap|>ellant has been proved guilty cannot Im adjudged as other than infamous from any and every point, of view,” the judgment concluded. It was certainly, as had been said in a Canadian case, “conduct disgraceful in the common judgment of mankind and much more so in a professional respect.” No course was open to the Court in the circumstances save to dismiss the appeal. Costs were allowed to the Medical Council on the highest scale, with 25 per cent, extra as in a case from a distance.