Since going on-line the Victim's Justice Center Inc. has been contacted by numerous organizations and individuals.  We thank you all for your information and support.  The VJC Inc. has decided to make its next goal in the battle against medical malpractice a public awareness campaign.
The justification for this decision is simply logistics.  One of the many barriers that we face is that people believe medical malpractice doesn't exist, that it will never happen to them, that doctors are the victim's and that the victim's are gold diggers.  These public perceptions are not merely a coincidence.
Having been involved in the battered women's movement, worked with batterers, sex offenders and their victims I see many similarities.  These issues are duplicating those of the pre -battered women's movement.  The perpetrator blames the victim and takes what is called a victim stance.  The survivor is vilified, discredited and painted as crazy and legislators, law enforcement and the justice system collude with and protect the perpetrator.
We can learn much from the battered women's movement and need to utilize the strategies that worked to accomplish the goals of holding batterers and sex offenders accountable, protecting and compensating the victim and informing the public.
The VJC asks that all organizations and individual advocates align in a national public awareness campaign and as we disseminate this information we work to organize individual survivors.  This has a multi layered purpose.  When survivors can work for change they frequently don't feel like their own trauma/loss was totally in vain.  Without public support and the stories of these individuals we haven't a chance at impacting accountability in this area.  And survivors of medical malpractice are the true experts on medical malpractice.
Our opponents have had a successful campaign for many years.  Their campaign has been known as tort reform, legal reform etc.  The result has been the disappearance of accountability, many deaths and "Justice" determined not by a moral code of ethics but by money and power.
If you doubt/resent the comparison of medical malpractice to battering or sex offenses you need only look at:  the number of victims returned to the perpetrator through 72 hour detentions, the victim stance of the medical profession, the lack of response by law enforcement, the death rate, the victim blaming, ad nauseum...
Please reproduce this plea in whole and unaltered and distribute in any way. For more information call or email us.