Here's a not so hypothetical situation:
You're a doctor.
A woman comes to you with problems of pain, bleeding, and a feeling like "something moving inside her".
What do you do?
A) Consult medical knowledge and literature for illnesses with similar symptoms and perscribe proper treatment.
B) Claim it's demons and tell the woman to have an exorcism performed.
I'm quite partial to A, but it seems a doctor in the UK thought choice B would be a better option.
Fortunately, this didn't seem to be such a serious case of illness that the religious meddling with treatment resulted in death as has happened in the past.
However, what is rather amazing is that the doctor thinks that such things have in no way impared her ability to treat patients. Fortunately the medical board isn't looking to agree.
I think B would be perfectly appropriate provided the exorcism was conducted using a modern hospital and cutting edge medical exorcism techniques.
ReplyDeleteI think that modern medical practitioners all over the world have lost touch with science. Medical practice turned scientific in the early 17th century. But are we now looking at a reversal of that trend?
ReplyDeleteI dont think general medical 'practice' is a scientific practice anymore. Infact I think doctors are more like call center operators in that they follow a preset decision tree. They dont necessarily have to understand the 'process' but just look for effects of treatment.
There were doctors involved in the recent terrorist attacks by radical islamists in the UK. Why did that come as a surprise? A huge majority of doctors and surgeons I know profess to be quite religious. Some even dispute evolution and believe in creationism. A lot of them are anti-pro-choice and many think stem cell research is just a fad.
Nick,
ReplyDeleteI hate to nit pick you Nick, but your last paragraph bothers me in a couple of places.
First, I think it's fair to say that a "huge majority" of the general population has some sort of religious beliefs. Without knowing your sample size or how religious qualifies as "quite", I'd have to say that your data is anecdotal. I've always understood that the percentage of people professing religious beliefs is independent of profession, but I couldn't quote a source on that.
Second, "anti-pro-choice"?? Can't you just say anti-choice if you can't bring yourself to calling them "pro-life"? Personally, I prefer to refer to people in the way that they refer to themselves whenever possible.
I think B would be perfectly appropriate provided the exorcism was conducted using a modern hospital and cutting edge medical exorcism techniques.
ReplyDelete