Educating and activating health professionals to work toward health equity.

We the Physicians

We are life-long Minnesotans, we are people who moved here from another state or from the other side of the world. We live in big cities, in the suburbs, in rural areas. We all call this beautiful state our home. 

We are parents, grandparents, neighbors, friends. We are members of churches, synagogues, mosques, and other faith communities. We are veterans. We coach soccer teams, basketball teams, ski clubs. We sing in choirs, play hockey, paint landscapes, write poetry, and are experts at driving in the snow.

We are also all physicians. We are pediatricians, surgeons, internists, psychiatrists, obstetricians, family doctors, radiologists, pathologists, neurologists [Note: this list will be updated based on who signs the letter]. We work in large health systems, in private practices, at academic health centers, in the VA Health Care System, in federally qualified health centers, with the Indian Health Service. We care for patients across our state from birth to death. We teach the next generation of physicians. 

As physicians, we have taken a professional oath to care for others and to do no harm. As part of that, we promised, “I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings.” In addition to that oath, the mandate Primum non nocere - First, do no harm has been ingrained in us since we were medical students.  

Because of the covenants we made when we became physicians, we are compelled to share our collective stories in this moment so the rest of the country and the world knows what is happening in Minnesota. We are raising our voices because silence ensures that harm will continue. 

**Stories start here:**

We tried to tend to Nicole Renee Good after she was shot, identifying ourselves as a physician. An ICE agent responded, “I don’t care.”

Closing starts here

We do care. We are Minnesota physicians who care for the people of Minnesota, regardless of whether we share our patients’ opinions or immigration status or religion or political views. We care for our patients because they are human beings.

In the preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America, the authors remind us that one of its purposes is to, “Promote general welfare.” In bearing witness to what is happening to our patients and our communities, we strive to uphold that ideal and our professional commitment to care for our fellow human beings. 

And so, We the Physicians of Minnesota listed below, in order to uphold our professional covenant to promote the general welfare of the people of Minnesota, call for an immediate end to the violence and trauma that is being inflicted on our patients and our communities by ICE.