I'm sorry to post such a long passage but here's irrefutable proof that doctors can and do continue to practice even as known pedophiles:
http://www.publications.ojd.state.or.us/A99377.htm
This is concerning Dr. Art Silverman of Oregon, who was just extradited from Israel, where he fled to escape his sentence. He was on the run for almost nine years. He's sitting in Jackson County Jail as I type this. My husband went to his arraignment last week just so he could assure me that the man was, indeed, behind bars. Note the parts bolded by me:
"The presentence investigation revealed that
numerous children had reported inappropriate sexual behaviors by defendant over many years. According to one parent, approximately 10 years before the charged incidents occurred,
defendant had reached for the groin of her 10-year-old mentally retarded son during a counseling session. Another therapist reported that one of his clients, a 17-year-old male, said that
defendant had asked the child to masturbate during a treatment session.
Three other boys, one aged 13 and two aged 15, reported that defendant would rub and stroke their stomachs, reaching lower and lower until the children stopped him. Another mental health professional at an agency at which defendant had worked
reported that there had been complaints that defendant asked children inappropriate questions about anal sex.
The record also contains information from a psychiatrist, Dr. Beebe, whom defendant had been seeing for years before the incidents that led to the current convictions, as well as information from another psychiatrist and a psychologist who evaluated defendant after the current charges were brought. Beebe described the incidents that led to the current convictions as "
some inappropriate play" with defendant's son's friends, and opined that defendant had not previously been attracted to underage boys and that he
could be successfully treated on an outpatient basis and by attending Sex Love Addicts Anonymous meetings.
A psychiatrist, Dr. Kjaer, who evaluated defendant at the request of his attorney, also provided a report. That report indicates that defendant had sexual experiences with adolescent males when he himself was an adolescent and that
he was arrested at age 21 for inappropriate sexual contact with a male, after which he received several years of psychotherapy. Defendant continued to receive therapy at regular intervals throughout his life and was advised by a therapist not to discuss his homosexual inclinations with his wife. Defendant reported to Kjaer that, in his therapy practice, he had
treated a 10-year-old boy for sexual abuse and that, when the boy reached the age of 22, they had an affair. Kjaer opined that, because of defendant's grief and depression over the ending of the affair with the 22-year-old, he had allowed himself to become preoccupied with the victims, whom Kjaer described as "inquisitive sexual animals." Psychological testing showed that defendant was depressed, but not psychotic. Kjaer opined in his report that
defendant should continue to receive treatment from his treating psychiatrist, that he should possibly attend a short inpatient treatment program, and that "the two alleged victims should be excluded from the immediate vicinity of the defendant." In his report, Kjaer further opined that
it would be "unreasonable to incarcerate someone who has struggled so long privately with this disorder and now is making genuine progress towards recovery."
A psychologist, Dr. Knapp, also evaluated defendant at his attorney's request. Defendant admitted to Knapp that
he had engaged in oral sex and mutual masturbation with one of the victims on five occasions. Defendant reported that he had first been arrested at age 21 after making sexual overtures to a male college student in a bathroom. He received extensive psychotherapy for many years after this incident.
Defendant reported that, in 1993 or 1994, he had an affair with a 23-year-old male who had formerly been his patient when the male was 9 through 15 years of age. According to defendant,
this male later developed psychological difficulties and claimed that defendant had molested him when he had been a patient, which defendant maintained was not true. Defendant also told Knapp that "
he felt it was possible to molest the young boy by whom he is currently being charged without harming the boy," that "not all molestation leads to serious damage," and that he "did not do anything to the young boy that the young boy did not want him to do." Knapp opined that
defendant suffered from depression and pedophilia, would be amenable to outpatient sex-offender treatment, and could benefit from individual psychotherapy.
At the sentencing hearing, Kjaer testified that defendant's pedophilia stemmed from his sexual activity when he was 13 with other 13-year-old males, that
pedophilia is best treated as an addiction, and that chemical treatments are available to eliminate most sexual behaviors. Knapp testified that defendant has been in therapy most of his life and has gone through a number of phases in which he has been suicidal and self-destructive. He testified that
defendant was repulsed by his pedophilic urges but that he became increasingly helpless to resist them and that the current offenses were a result of his self-destructive tendencies. He opined that defendant had spent his years in therapy trying to deny, avoid and repress his problems, but that now that they had become public, he would be treatable in the community and would have a very low risk of reoffending. He acknowledged that his opinion was based on information provided to him that defendant had been charged with sexually abusing one boy on five occasions.
Defendant's wife, a psychiatrist, testified at sentencing that defendant was a very good therapist, that he became depressed several years earlier and was mentally ill, but that, in the several months before the sentencing hearing, he no longer appeared to be mentally ill."
Short story...it DOES happen.