Bill Frist

Bill Frist (born Feb. 22, 1952, Nashville, Tenn., U.S.) is an American politician and physician who served as a U.S. senator (1995–2007) from Tennessee. A Republican, he was Senate majority leader from 2003 to 2007.

Frist graduated from Princeton University in 1974 with a degree in health care policy. He then attended Harvard Medical School, graduating with honours in 1978. He received surgical training at various hospitals and was hired in 1985 by the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, where he founded and directed the school’s renowned transplant centre. A board-certified heart surgeon, Frist performed numerous heart transplants and the first successful heart-lung transplant in the southeastern United States.

Frist was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 1994, defeating three-term Democratic incumbent James Sasser after mounting an aggressive campaign; he became the first physician to be elected to the Senate since 1928. Even after entering politics, Frist had numerous opportunities to put his medical skills to work. In July 1998, after a gunman in the U.S. Capitol killed two police officers and injured a tourist, Frist provided aid to the victims and even resuscitated the gunman and escorted him to the hospital.

In 2000 Frist won reelection overwhelmingly. In the Senate he specialized in health care policy and issues in bioethics, specifically the treatment of HIV/AIDS. An opponent of cloning, in 2001 Frist announced his support for strictly regulated embryonic stem-cell research. After the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and the discovery of anthrax spores in mail sent to two U.S. senators and various media companies, Frist was increasingly consulted as a leading Senate expert on bioterrorism (terrorism committed with biological agents or biological weapons). He also expanded his areas of expertise, sitting on committees dealing with such areas as foreign relations, the federal budget, banking, commerce, finance, and education.

Praised for his bipartisanship and hard work, Frist quickly ascended the Republican Senate hierarchy. In 2000 he was elected to head the National Republican Senatorial Committee, helping the party win majority control of the chamber in the 2002 midterm elections. In January 2003 Frist became Senate majority leader after Sen. Trent Lott was forced to resign the post amid criticism of his controversial remarks at a 100th-birthday party for Sen. Strom Thurmond.

During 2003 Frist was successful in shepherding much of Pres. George W. Bush’s legislative agenda through the Senate, particularly his reform of Medicare. Nevertheless, Frist drew fire from Republican colleagues for agreeing to cap Bush’s $726 billion tax-cut package at $350 billion. Frist supported a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage—a position that won him praise from conservative allies and criticism from liberals. In 2005 he was at the centre of the controversy surrounding Terry Schiavo, a brain-damaged Florida woman whose family was locked in a fierce legal battle over whether to remove her from life support. After viewing video footage of Schiavo, Frist challenged the opinion of doctors who had examined her in person, stating that because she responded to visual stimuli he doubted they were correct about the extent of her brain damage. When autopsy reports later confirmed her doctors had been correct, he defended his remarks by saying that they had never been intended to constitute a diagnosis. Frist remained Senate majority leader until 2007, when he resigned his Senate seat. In May 2009 Frist joined the board of directors of the drug-testing laboratory Aegis Sciences Corporation; he also advised the company on health care matters.

Frist is the author of When Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism from the Senate’s Only Doctor (2002) and A Heart to Serve: The Passion to Bring Health, Hope, and Healing (2008).

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