The Center for Consumer Freedom has published its latest list of "Tarnished Halo Award" winners, who compete for one by being "America’s most notorious animal-rights zealots, environmental scaremongers, celebrity busybodies, self-anointed “public interest” advocates, trial lawyers, and other food & beverage activists who claim to “know what’s best for you.”
What caught my eye was this:
The “We Have No Recollection of That Event, Senator” Category
Awarded to the PETA-affiliated Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) for claiming this year that murder advocate and long-time spokesman Jerry Vlasak was not, in fact, a spokesman for the group. Yet he was listed as a PCRM spokesperson in a brochure for an animal-rights conference in which he chillingly supported the murder of humans to further animal rights, saying of doctors whose medical research requires the use of animals: “I don’t think you’d have to kill—assassinate—too many.” PCRM’s website still carries stories listing Vlasak as a representative (that is—until they read this!).
Not only did Dr. Vlasak discover an ethical justification for assassinating scientists (follow the link to listen to him . . .), but on TV he openly and publicly advocated the practice itself (follow the link to view the chilling video).
Now, I don't know how PCRM is characterizing their relationship with Dr. Vlasak these days, or to whom, but I did a little checking to see what the Vlasak/PCRM relationship had been, using PCRM's very own search engine, no less. And here's what I found:
1) PCRM--Magazine--Autumn--New Ethics in Indian Medicine
New Ethics in Indian Medicine: PCRM Physician Jerry Vlasak Helps Bridge the Gap By Kristine Kieswer. Getting noticed in a country whose population tops one billion is a difficult task for anyone. Ye... ...cal and governmental establishments. Dr. Jerry Vlasak's recent trip was no exception. The trauma surgeon went to share information on state-of-the-art, nonanimal methods now being used in medical educ... See also this, which, with profoundly dark irony, specifically lists Dr. Vlasak under the category "Research Ethics Issues." [My emphasis . . . ed.]2) PCRM--Magazine--Winter 99--Alternatives to Animal Use in Eastern Europe
. . . Representing PCRM, Jerry Vlasak, M.D., spoke on his experience with alternatives to live animal laboratories in medical education and screened PCRM’s video Advances in Medical Education with Henry Heimlich, M.D., which documents Harvard Medical School’s human operating-room-based training program. PCRM member physician Rich McLellan, M.D., also spoke on the advantages of humane educational methods. . . . [My emphasis . . . ed.]3) PCRM--Magazine--Winter 03--2002: The Year in Review
. . .Des Moines University Osteopathic Medical Center cancelled its dog lab–infamous for its nipple-cutting-and-reattachment exercises–days before PCRM’s Jerry Vlasak, M.D., was scheduled to visit the school to give a lecture on nonanimal alternatives. . . . [My emphasis . . . ed.]4) PCRM--Magazine--Spring/Summer 02--Modernizing Trauma Training for Emergency Doctors
. . . PCRM's Jerry Vlasak, M.D., and Pamelyn Ferdin, R.N., were inundated with questions from surgeons interested in human-based training at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) annual meeting in New Orleans late last year. They distributed PCRM's Innovations in Trauma Training CD-ROM, along with other information on nonanimal trauma training to hundreds of surgeons, including many ATLS instructors. [My emphasis . . . ed.]5) PCRM--Magazine--Winter 00--1999: Advances in Research, Education, and Health
. . .PCRM reached hundreds of physicians and students at the American College of Surgeons, the American Medical Student Association, the International Trauma Anesthesia and Critical Care Society, and the American Medical Women's Association conferences. Thanks to Jerry Vlasak, M.D., Ray Greek, M.D., Christine Dehlendorf, Jennifer Rupert, Peggy Hilden, Lisa Lynch, Laurel Kadish, and Jennifer Drone.6) PCRM--Magazine--Winter 02--PCRM 2001: The Year in Review
. . . PCRM physician Jerry Vlasak traveled to India to brief top medical leaders in ten major cities on viable alternatives to using animals in research. [My emphasis . . . ed.]7) PCRM--Magazine--Winter 02--Editorial: When the Going Gets Tough
. . . At its recent convention, the American College of Surgeons officially approved the use of simulators in trauma training. At the same ACS conference, 265 surgeons signed up for PCRM membership, thanks to the efforts of PCRM's Jerry Vlasak, M.D., and Pamelyn Ferdin, R.N. . . . [My emphasis . . . ed.]8) PCRM--Magazine--Summer 99--PCRM Reaches out to AMSA, TraumaCare '99
. . .Jerry Vlasak, M.D., and Ray Greek, M.D., represent PCRM at the International Trauma Anesthesia and Critical Care Society's TraumaCare '99 conference in Chicago May 13-15. . . . [My emphasis . . . ed.]9) PCRM--Magazine--Winter 99--Year in Review
. . .Our medical education campaigns also reached Poland, thanks to PCRM surgeon Jerry Vlasak, M.D., and Rich McLellan, M.D., and Australia, thanks to veterinary student Andrew Knight. . . . [My emphasis . . . ed.]
The canny reader will note that several references are to Dr. Vlasak's participation in the same event, and that Dr. Vlasak's name appears more than once in a given journal issue.
For the purposes of his association with the PCRM, that is irrelevant: the PCRM acknowledged Dr. Vlasak to be one of their own, nay, the PCRM proudly took virtual ownership of him and his MD, basking in the pride of their association with (their notion of) his good works and the authority and credibility he and his medical degree delivered to them.
What better for their agenda than to have a member of the medical establishment, a trauma surgeon no less, offer himself up as a crusader for the cause.
How profoundly embarrassing for the PCRM that their crusader, the very personification of establishment authority and credibility turned convert, should turn out to be first an advocate of murder, and more recently a spokesman for the terrorist Animal Liberation Front.
Brian
