Volume 44, Issue 2 (Spring-Summer 2026)
By Carmel Shachar, Susannah Baruch & Louise P. King*
In this Feature, we document the recent erosion of the medical profession’s ability to self-regulate, a trend which we define, in part, as substituting political and legal judgments for evidence-based medical decision-making. Historically, medicine developed a system of professional autonomy grounded in standardized education, certification, peer oversight, scientific inquiry, and shared decision-making between physicians and patients. Although government has long regulated healthcare to protect public health and safety, recent regulatory, judicial, and legislative actions increasingly reach beyond those functions in ways that can undermine medical decision-making and the ability to provide evidence-based standard of care medical services.
