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1908
20
medical attendant, while others again object on the ground that when the
State requires information it should pay for it. The first contention was raised
much more loudly when the notification of the infectious diseases was made
compulsory, although payment for it was to be made under the Act, and it really
is not a serious contention. As to the non-payment of a fee, however, a great
deal may be said. A fee ought to be paid for each certificate, for surely it is
unfair to demand gratuitous service, and that too from a man whose profession has
cost him very many years of preparation for entering on the study of medicine,
and after he has done so, at least five years more before he can gain his
qualifications. The law is radically unfair, and has no more right to enact the
services of the medical profession for nothing than it has to compel solicitors
or barristers to give their services without a fee. It is not that doctors care so
much about the fee as that they resent being compelled to give information
gratuitously, and they naturally ask where will it end ? They are noted
above all professional men for their unpaid services in the cause of the public
and even private charities, which they give ungrudgingly and with a whole
heart in the cause of suffering humanity; and, therefore, they feel deeply hurt,
and accordingly resent it, when they are compelled to give certificates notifying
births to a public authority for nothing.