Answering the Call to Service: Encouraging Volunteerism by Protecting Doctors as We Protect Ourselves
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Answering the Call to Service:
Encouraging Volunteerism by Protecting
Doctors as We Protect Ourselves*
Introduction
In 2015, President Barack Obama appeared for the last time on the
Daily Show with Jon Stewart to call for Americans to volunteer and to
discuss, among other pressing issues of the day, the President's expansion
of AmeriCorps, a federal volunteer service group of over 75,000
Americans.' Twenty-five years earlier, President George H.W. Bush
founded Points of Light to promote volunteerism in America and signed the
National and Community Service Act of 1990.2 In this epoch of seemingly
unrelenting political intransigence, the importance of volunteerism to
American society has transcended both time and partisan politics. And with
good reason.
Volunteers alone manage and operate 85% of charitable nonprofits
recognized by the Internal Revenue Service.3 Without volunteers,
charitable nonprofits could not achieve their missions. In 2014, the 7.97
billion hours of total volunteer labor in the United States added $197 billion
of value to communities throughout the country.4 Specialist volunteerism
by medical and legal practitioners especially warrants attention, as only a
limited number of licensed professionals can provide those much-needed
services for people who cannot afford to pay. However, volunteers worry
about personal legal liability, and in both medicine and law, fear of
malpractice claims can create an ominous specter, chasing off would-be
volunteersi Fortunately, a civic-minded attorney can usually find a
* J.D. Candidate, University of Texas School of Law Class of 2016. I would like to thank
Professor Loftus Carson II for his guidance and mentorship in producing this Note. I would also
like to thank my husband, family, and friends for their continued support. I lastly would like to
thank David Springer and the entire Texas Law Review for their commitment and assistance
throughout this process.
1. Sam Sanders, Obama and Stewart Have One Last Dance on The Daily Show,' NPR
(July 22, 2015, 3:22 AM), http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/07/22/425183531/
obama-and-stewart-have-one-last-dance-on-the-daily-show [https://perma.cc/4WXY-ARW3];
AmeriCorps, CORP. FOR NAT'L & COMMUNITY SERV., http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/
americorps [https://perma.cc/UL2J-VQCL].
2. President George H. W. Bush, POINTS OF LIGHT, http://www.pointsoflight.org/people/
board-members/president-george-h-w-bush [https://perma.cc/G97F-TZPX].
3. Volunteers, NAT'L COUNCIL NONPROFITS, https://www.councilofnonprofits.org/print/640
[https://perma.cc/6D23-PX6M].
4. Dollar Value of Volunteering for States, CORP. FOR NAT'L & COMMUNITY SERV., http://
www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/pressroom/value_states.cfm [https://perma.cc/32T4-ERK5].
5. See, e.g., Ilona Bray, Should Nonprofit Directors Worry About Personal Liability?, NOLO,
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/nonprofit-directors-personal-liability-32357.html](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/tlr94&div=45&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Answering the Call to Service: Encouraging Volunteerism by Protecting Doctors as We Protect Ourselves
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