A Picture of Unethical Evil: Farid Fata, M.D.

Can we possibly imagine the appearance of the person who has a complete lack of ethics? Is the person young or old? Is this person well-groomed or slovenly? Is it the face of a man or woman? Is the person rich or poor, sour in expression or seemingly happy? The answer to these questions of course, is “yes.” It can be all of these things, plus any skin color, religion, country of origin, degree of education or marital status.

However (and for the sake of this blog), the face of ethical evil is a physician originally trained in Lebanon but associated with the finest U.S. teaching hospitals, board certified, extremely wealthy (owns 7 clinics) and lives in Michigan. His name is Farid Fata and he has been charged with bullying more than 500 patients into getting chemotherapy treatments for cancers they never had. He used more than 500 patients as cash machines, giving them more than 9,000 painful injections of chemotherapy drugs they never needed.

He robbed these patients of their money, of their trust in physicians and worst of all, of their health.

To call this man a jackal would be a compliment. He is a man without conscience and without a soul. Prosecutors are asking for a 175 year jail sentence; it is a shame he will not live that long. I say this as a cancer survivor and as someone who has lost relatives and friends to cancer.

If you want to read an excellent article on this case, please go to NBC News and to an article entitled: “Farid Fata, Doctor Who Gave Chemo to Healthy Patients, Faces Sentencing.”

In this blog, we will not focus on the nuts and bolts of the case against Farid Fata, M.D., but how an unethical monster such as this comes into being.

Monsters within our midst

Men and women who are without an ethical core arise from opportunity. Most often, they have the doors opened for them. We place them on pedestals they do not deserve; we rarely question what they say and we never challenge them for fear of insulting them.

There are tremendous parallels between men such as Farid Fata, Bernard Madoff and even (it looks like) Bill Cosby. They all have credentials we believe are unassailable, they are successful in our eyes and they yield great power and influence. The opportunity for these types of people exists because they understand that we are more than happy to give them those opportunities.

When patients found their way to Fata and he told them they had cancer, they dared not challenge him. In their minds, how can a man who is an internist and oncologist with such credentials, a multi-millionaire, owner of clinics and a gorgeous home to be challenged? How could an investor challenge a man such as Madoff who promised a 20 percent or more return year-in and year-out be challenged? How (allegedly) could an aspiring model or actress argue with the power and mega-success of a man such as “Dr. Heathcliff ‘Cliff’ Huxtable?” aka Bill Cosby?

Each one of those men had an innate sense of who would challenge them and who would not. They were predators.

The other side to the opportunities are the needs of those who are being deceived.

Dr. Farid Fata appeared to have incredible credentials however, something was amiss for quite some time. He did not encourage patients to get second opinions; in fact, he bullied them into treatments. He pushed away serious medical providers who questioned his techniques. Patients were ultimately so filled with the fears Fata instilled they rushed into treatments they didn’t need…but they wanted to live, they wanted to get well from diseases they never had!

Madoff appealed to greed. No one, it seemed, dared ask him how he could promise such returns even during economic downturns. They had a need to believe he was some kind of financial genius even when all of the legitimate mutual funds around him were barely hanging on to miniscule gains.

Cosby (allegedly) was able to get many women into sexually compromising positions by (allegedly) drugging them. He had the power of television and movies behind him; he had the status of a Ph.D. in education; he had a platform. Oh yes, he had connections. Young, naïve women (especially in the entertainment industry) saw him as a powerful man who could do them good.

These men are monsters. They devoured people they perceived as needing something they had the opportunity to give them. What they gave them was a fantasy and never a reality.

I’ll take mine real, thank you!

Whether Farid Fata as a physician, or thousands of other fraudsters who have traipsed across our media, what they all have in common in a lack of grounding in ethics.

At some point in training, at some crossroads of education and opportunity, each one of these unethical types could have been exposed to good ethics – and were not. To make matters worse, their behaviors are often enabled even after the fact.

If you are uncertain in a situation and don’t know what to do, challenge yourself if not them. I wish no one reading this ill health, especially a cancer diagnosis. If that comes your way, get a second opinion or a third. If a stockbroker promises you a huge return for your money despite the economy, please seek out advice outside of that firm. If you are in the company of a powerful person or a famous person force yourself to get behind their mask. Yes, they may be very real and lovely people, but they may also be evil. Take the time to know them.

If you have been raised ethically, you are more powerful than any of these jokers. You are armed with the truth and common sense.

YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!