Association of American Physicians and Surgeons

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a politically conservative association of physicians, medical professionals and students, patients and others, founded in 1943. According to the AAPS's website, the organization is "dedicated to the highest ethical standards of the Oath of Hippocrates and to preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine", and to "supporting the principles of the free market in medical practice." The motto of the AAPS is omnia pro aegroto which means "all for the patient."

The group had approximately 4,000 members in 2005. Notable members include Ron Paul and John Cooksey. The executive director is Jane Orient, professor of clinical medicine at the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine.

Positions
A 1966 article in the New York Times described the organization as an "ultra-right-wing... political-economic rather than medical" group, and asserted that historically some of its leaders had been members of the John Birch Society.

Currently, the organization opposes mandatory vaccination, universal health care and government intervention in healthcare. The AAPS has characterized the effects of the Social Security Act of 1965, which established Medicare and Medicaid, as "evil" and "immoral", and encouraged members to avoid participating in Medicare and Medicaid. AAPS believes that there is no right to medical care, and opposes efforts to implement a national health plan. The organization also opposes the use of evidence-based medicine and practice guidelines as a usurpation of physician autonomy.

AAPS opposes abortion and over-the-counter access to emergency contraception.

AAPS helped appeal the conviction of Virginia internist William Hurwitz, who was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison years for prescribing narcotic drugs in excessive quantities after 16 former patients testified against him. Dr Hurwitz was granted a retrial in 2006

In 2004, AAPS filed a brief on behalf of Rush Limbaugh. In 1975, they went to court to block enforcement of a new Social Security amendment that would monitor the treatment given Medicare and Medicaid patients. More recently, they have been involved in litigation against HIPAA, arguing that it is violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution by allowing government access to certain medical data without a warrant. In 2006 the group called attention to sham peer review.

Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
The Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPandS), until 2003 named the Medical Sentinel, is the journal of the association. Its mission statement includes "… a commitment to publishing scholarly articles in defense of the practice of private medicine, the pursuit of integrity in medical research … Political correctness, dogmatism and orthodoxy will be challenged with logical reasoning, valid data and the scientific method." Articles in the journal are subject to a double-blind peer-review process.

Articles published in the journal have argued that the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are unconstitutional, that "humanists" have conspired to replace the "creation religion of Jehovah" with evolution, that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has not caused global warming, that HIV does not cause AIDS, and that the "gay male lifestyle" shortens life expectancy by 20 years. A series of articles by pro-life authors also claimed a link between abortion and breast cancer; such a link has been rejected by the National Cancer Institute.

The journal is not listed in the major literature databases of MEDLINE/PubMed nor the Web of Science. Quackwatch lists JPandS as an untrustworthy, non-recommended periodical. The World Health Organization found that a 2003 article on vaccination published in the journal had "a number of limitations which undermine the conclusions drawn by the authors", although it noted that the matters raised in the paper were of sufficient importance that "WHO and GACVS will continue to keep the issue under careful and ongoing review."

Investigative journalist Brian Deer wrote that the journal is the "house magazine of a right-wing American fringe group [AAPS]" and "is barely credible as an independent forum."