Madeleine Cosman

Madeleine Pelner Cosman (Dec. 4, 1937 - March 2, 2006) was a scholar, a policy analyst, an advocate, a prolific author, and a faculty member at City College of New York. "As a medical lawyer, educator and health-care policy guru, she testified before Congress, wrote 15 books and buttressed conservative politicians' arguments against immigration" [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ] “She was recruited by all these politicians to present ideas with coherence, logic and dramatic flair,” her daughter said. “But before the political world took notice, the intellectual world was pretty much aware of her." Lecture appointments took Cosman throughout the United States and to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Israel and Western Europe. She also contributed to think tanks that reflected her philosophy on medical and legal issues, the Cato and Galen institutes. [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ]

Education

Cosman's degrees include [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/nyregion/19cosman.html?ex=1300424400&en=75a1df0598ca0de5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Margalit Fox, "Madeleine P. Cosman, 68, Medieval Expert, Dies", "New York Times", 19 March 2006, accessed 4 Dec 2007] ]
* a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (1995)
* a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from Columbia University (1964)
* an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Hunter College (1960)
* a B.A. from Barnard College (1959)

Cosman was a professor in the Department of English at City College of New York from 1964 until her retirement in 1993.

Renaissance Studies

In 1968, Cosman became founding director of the City College of New York Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, which granted undergraduate and graduate degrees. Her book, "Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony" (1976) is said to have been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html Jack Williams, "Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author", "The Union Tribune", 11 March 2006, accessed 4 Dec 2007] ] (The Pulitzer nomination, however, has been doubted, [ [http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=1257 SPLCenter.org: The Nativists ] ] on the grounds that even according to Pulitzer officials " [t] he names of nominated finalists have been announced only since 1980.") [ [http://www.pulitzer.org/Archive/archive.html#terminology The Pulitzer Prizes - Search the Pulitzer Archives ] ]

According to one obituary, she lectured for years "on cable television at the Metropolitan Museum of New York on medieval daily life. She was deeply passionate about ideas and her gift was to share her ideas with an intelligent audience." [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ]

Advocacy

“She never practiced law,” her daughter said. “She used her knowledge of the law to be more effective as a policy analyst.” [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ] "Known for an engaging speaking style that illuminated her legal savvy, Cosman was a favorite guest on talk radio." [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ]

Health-care policy

For nearly 30 years, Cosman taught medical students medical law, medical business and medical history at City College of City University of New York. [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ] and was a strong advocate for personal choice of one's own medical care. Her views spawned an hourlong presentation on C-span titled "Who owns your body" as well as books titled "ABCs of the Clinton Medical World" (published 1993) and "Selling the Medical Practice: The Physicians and Surgeons Guide" (published 1988) [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ]

Immigration issues

Cosman appeared frequently with host Mark Edwards of “Wake Up America” and provided the medical legal data for “Hold Their Feet to the Fire,” [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ] a project of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) [ [http://www.holdtheirfeettothefire.org/ Hold Their Feet to the Fire / Amnesty Alamo. Washington D.C. April 21-25, 2007. NO AMNESTY FOR ILLEGALS! ] ] . One article she wrote for the "Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons" titled "Illegal Aliens and American Medicine" [ [http://www.jpands.org/vol10no1/cosman.pdf Madeline Cosman, "Illegal Aliens and American Medicine", "Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons", Spring 2005, accessed 4 Dec 2007] ] stated that

“Horrendous diseases that long ago America had conquered are resurging,” she wrote last April. “Horrific diseases common in Third World poverty and medical ignorance suddenly are appearing in American emergency rooms and medical offices.” [ [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/obituaries/20060311-9999-1m11cosman.html SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Obituaries - Madeleine Cosman, 68; medical lawyer, author ] ]

and she argued that 80 California hospitals closed between 1994 and 2003 because of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requirement that those hospitals provide services (including childbirth) to illegal aliens in the emergency room regardless of their ability to pay.

Criticism

Critics have objected that many of her controversial claims on immigration and medicine are not authoritative due her lack of credentials. [e.g., Amy Goodman and Lou Dobbs in "DemocracyNow!" transcript cited below.] In discussions of medical issues, she is often referred to as "Dr. Madeleine Cosman", though her doctorates were in literature and law. The title, though technically accurate, has led some to the mistaken impression that she has a medical degree [e.g., the Objectivist Center which featured "Madeleine Cosman, M.D., J.D." as a lecturer in [http://www.objectivistcenter.org/events/sem2004/show-descrip.asp?ID=13 a 2004 seminar] .] and therefore medical expertise. For example, a reporter on Lou Dobbs' CNN program [cite news | url = http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0705/07/ldt.01.html | title = Lou Dobbs Tonight transcripts | date = 2007-05-07 | work = CNN | accessdate = 2007-12-05 ] had cited as facts Cosman's claims that there were, over a period of three years, 7,000 cases of leprosy in the United States and that many of these were the result of illegal immigrants bringing the disease into the country. Dobbs has since rejected these claims as unsubstantiated, calling Cosman "a wackjob". [ [http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/4/fact_checking_dobbs_cnn_anchor_lou Transcript of "DemocracyNow!" broadcast, 4 Dec 2007, accessed 4 Dec 2007] ] Cosman has also been accused [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/business/30leonhardt.html?pagewanted=all David Leonhardt, "Truth, Fiction and Lou Dobbs", "New York Times", 30 May 2007] ; [http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/29/Dobbs.May30/index.html Lou Dobbs, "An answer for my critics", "cnn.com", 31 May 2007] ; Gustavo Arellano, "¡Ask a Mexican!" column in [http://www.ocweekly.com/columns/ask-a-mexican/ask-a-mexican/28061/ 15 Nov 2007 issue] of "OC Weekly" online; all accessed 9 Dec 2007.] of making racist claims in her criticism of immigration. For example, railing against Mexican immigrant men, she made the following ominous warning: "Recognize that most of these bastards molest girls under age twelve, some as young as age five, others age three. Although, of course, some specialize in boys, some specialize in nuns, some are exceedingly versatile and rape little girls age eleven and women up to age seventy-nine." [ [http://www.democracynow.org/2007/12/4/fact_checking_dobbs_cnn_anchor_lou Transcript of "DemocracyNow!" broadcast, 4 Dec 2007, accessed 8 Dec 2007] ; see also a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzdAmu_GffM Youtube version of the quote] , accessed 8 Dec 2007.] She goes on to attribute the behavior to allegedly lenient Mexican laws concerning rape.

References