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Whistleblowing: a medico-legal argument

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posted on 2018-03-31, 02:30 authored by Jorge H RamirezJorge H Ramirez
1. Pre-peer review manuscript submitted to The BMJ (March 13th, 2017).

2. Cover letter:

"Dear Editors,
The BMJ

I had enough time to write a short cover letter, any attempt to summarise the submitted manuscript surely would be deemed not only as biased and overly-redundant - but also contradictory by the usual politically correct language of unnecessary long introductions, aimed to highlight the relevance of words by persuasion of busy editors handling thousands of editorial processes.

Why this manuscript should be openly peer-reviewed?
Why this manuscript should be published with (or without) corrections?
Why this manuscript was submitted?

I don’t have the answers to these questions. This paper wasn’t written to be published but to present an alternative viewpoint about whistleblowing and corruption, naturally occurring events in different jurisdictions, across blurred geopolitical borders unable to prevent transnational bribery with complex legislations.

Sincerely,
Jorge Ramírez

Embargo disclosure: this paper wasn’t shared with anyone else, except The BMJ."

3. Editor's decision letter: reject without peer-review (March 29th, 2017).

"29-Mar-2018 Dear Prof. Ramírez # BMJ.2018.044104 entitled "Whistleblowing: a medico-legal argument" Thank you for sending us your paper. We read it with interest but I regret to say that we have decided not to publish it in the BMJ. We receive over 8000 submissions a year and accept less than 10%. We do therefore have to make hard decisions on just how interesting an article will be to our general clinical readers, how much it adds, and how much practical value it will be. Thank you for considering BMJ for the publication of your article. I am sorry to disappoint you on this occasion, and I hope the outcome of this specific submission will not discourage you from the submission of future manuscripts. Best wishes Yours sincerely Richard Hurley.

If you elected during submission to send your article on to another journal the article will be transferred in 5 working days. If you intend to appeal against this decision please notify us before then. The journal(s) (if any) you have selected at submission are: Journal of Medical Ethics If you want to speed up or stop this onward transmission please email the editorial office: papersadmin@bmj.com"

4. Brian Martin. Information liberation: challenging the corruptions of information power. London: Freedom Press, 1998 189 pages, ISBN 0 900384 93 X
www.bmartin.cc/pubs/98il/

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5. Introduction

First, we need to redefine the word whistleblower as a pejorative nickname to discredit a public accusator; anonymous, pseudo-anonymous or perfectly identifiable individuals, publicly accusing someone else, - legal or natural person -, of criminal or unethical behaviors. Dissent of powerful bureaucratic authorities by the means of non-violent resistance, such as carefully - or not - constructed legal arguments. Public prosecutors must understand the principles of procedural fairness, caution is advised because the burden of proof is a juridical responsibility of the accuser, knowledge of legal doctrines and theories is mandatory.(1) It is one of the most difficult legal jobs, usually there is no payment for blowing the whistle but bankruptcy and blacklisting.(2) Nevertheless, it is also possible to argue that whistleblowers are professionals as double-agents.(3) Reprisals against public prosecutors are consuetudinary. From now on, the terms public prosecutor, accusator, and whistleblower will be used indistinctly as synonyms.

Libel laws and ad hominems are well-known tactics of legal intimidation combined with character assassination. Cases of extreme dissent threatening powerful people (i.e., natural and legal persons) might unleash severe reprisals, exemplary punishments (e.g., political abuse of psychiatric and murder) are also social deterrents promoting a culture of intimidation and self-censorship. The loyalty of wrongdoers is frequently rewarded with job promotions and participation in attractive business opportunities, undisclosed conflicts of interests (i.e., secrets) protected by confidentiality agreements and prevarication with impunity. Being a public accusator is a complex and risky legal job - usually ad honorem (i.e., no salary or contract).
Public prosecution requires living under the cognitive dissonance of two opposite psychological forces, a conflict created by the fusion of the biased mind of a lawyer with the impartial thoughts of a judge.(1) Reaching the point of equilibrium demands excessive caution, constant correction of ideas - impossible to measure in continuous arithmetical units - warrants patience, fortitude, and temperance. Fictional weights of two different thought processes, compared in a imaginary balance that only exist in the prosecutor’s mind, Perfect equilibrium is only possible in a utopian reality. Certainly, it is not a typical personality disorder surpassing the threshold of specific diagnostic criteria of a mental illness (e.g., DSM-V).(4) Extreme caution is recommended to avoid legal backfires and - more terrifying - primitive justice unleashed by the natural rights of the masses, or - even more dreadful - punishment from the highest hierarchical levels of authority by messianic leaders and their sinister henchmen (e.g., Álvaro Uribe, to not fall into the trap of Godwin's Law).(5) Nevertheless, Martin Luther King once said: "Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.", having quoted that, let’s move forward with this discussion - it is not a debate, yet.

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