FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) filed an amicus brief supporting the Boy Scouts in Boy Scouts of America vs. James Dale. AAPS Executive Director, Jane M. Orient, MD., issues the following statement in response to today's Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Boy Scouts:

"This ruling affirms the right of Americans to freedom of association and freedom of speech. It is wrong for governments to dictate the code of ethics or leadership qualifications for private organizations.

"Homosexuals have the same rights as other Americans. No group of Americans has a special right to demand that others agree with its moral values, much less teach values that they find harmful or obnoxious. A group of Muslims has the right to exclude someone who eats pork, a religious order has the right to exclude someone who does not practice celibacy, and a group of gays has the right to exclude heterosexuals.

"We are physicians who take an oath of ethics, and our patients count on us with their lives to adhere to that code. If the government had censored the ethics of the Boy Scouts, what would have stopped it from wiping out our Oath of Hippocrates? A ruling against the Boy Scouts would have been a terrifying prospect.

"This case is a freedom issue, which concerns all Americans, not just those who agree with the particular values upheld by the Boy Scouts."

AAPS is a professional association of physicians in all specialties dedicated to the Oath of Hippocrates and the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship since 1943.

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