ABSTRACT
Social Control of Medical Practice The social control of medical practice has traditionally presented special problems for American society. It has been argued that because physicians themselves have established the medical standards enforced by governmental regulating agencies and because laypersons are generally unable to judge technical performance, the two most common forms of social control in advanced society-bureaucratic supervision and judgment by the recipient of services-are lacking (Rueschmeyer 1972). However, the argument continues that the problem of controlling organized medicine is solved by the medical profession's emphasis on the strong self-control of the individual physician, an ethical stance reinforced by both the formal and informal sanctions of a community of colleagues. Society is thus justified in granting the
physician professional autonomy because he or she is a member of a self-controlled collectivity performing a vital function for society's general good. This argument contains three serious defects.
