The Bureaucratic Fight Over Death and Birth
A standoff between Washington state health officials and local physicians over whether doctors should be required to report vital statistics without pay.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Olympia, Nov. 30: The state board of health has experienced much trouble in gathering the vital statistics required by law. Physicians and several county auditors have maintained that they could not be compelled to make these returns without compensation. Dr. Armstrong submitted the following question to Attorney General Jones: 'Can physicians be compelled to make reports of births and deaths under section 4 of an act to create and establish a board of health of the state of Washington, approved March 7, 1891?' Attorney-General Jones responded: 'While I am unable to find any decision distinctly bearing upon the point, I am unable to see anything about the requirements of the law relating to the board of health which imposes any unreasonable regulation or burden upon those whom our law permits to practice medicine within the state. Our law requires persons solemnizing marriages to make a detailed report and certificate of the facts... and it is certainly no more unreasonable or burdensome to require a physician to report a birth or death without compensation than to require a minister to report a marriage.'
“It is certainly no more unreasonable or burdensome to require a physician to report a birth or death without compensation than to require a minister to report a marriage.”
This mirrors modern debates over the administrative burden placed on healthcare providers by government data-collection mandates, proving that the tension between civic reporting requirements and private professional labor is not a new phenomenon.
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