Later Redelmeier said as much to one of his fellow students, an American. What is it with you freedom-loving Americans? he asked. Live free or die. I don’t get it. I say, “Regulate me gently. I’d rather live.” His fellow student replied, Not only do a lot of Americans not share your view; other physicians don’t share your view. Redelmeier’s fellow student told him about Stanford’s famous head of cardiac surgery, Norm Shumway, who had actively lobbied against the creation of a law that would require motorcyclists to wear helmets. “It dropped my jaw,”
