Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.spectator.com.au/2021/12/a-dangerous-tone-has-crept-into-medical-discourse/
A dangerous tone has crept into medical discourse
James Kildare
26 December 2021 4:00 AM
A dangerous tone has crept into the medical discourse. Over the last year, it has become increasingly common to encounter medical professionals talking (with apparent glee) when they hear of someone getting unwell if they feel that person made the ‘wrong’ decision.
This change in attitude can only happen when we start seeing healthcare decisions as moral ones, rather than as factual ones; and as ‘group decisions’ instead of ‘personal decisions’.
Rather than asking ourselves how we weigh up the consequences of various policies and treatments, we are implored to project a consensus morality onto such questions. Those of us who dissent are not just wrong, we are heretics.
Most directly, this manifests itself as condescension towards patients.
Those who question medical decrees are belittled and insulted, both to their face and behind their backs. Although our profession has always been guilty of this conceit to a degree – as is common between experts and non-experts – it is a tendency of which we should be wary. This habit cannot be good for those of us who claim our work is fundamentally moral.
However, what is new is a current of disgust towards people who may disagree with a medical opinion. Of all the sentiments, ‘disgust’ is particularly dangerous and swiftly leads to an escalating chasm between clinician and patient. It is this chasm which stops us functioning as effective clinicians, and prevents us from reflecting on ourselves.
Indeed, this has gone further in many cases...
...When we stop seeing patients as individuals with a specific worth and value, we emerge in a world where a person is dispensable. What matters then is ultimately a projection of our morality, and the ‘ideology’ of a health service. It is especially disturbing that it is our medical profession making these arguments...
A dangerous tone has crept into medical discourse
James Kildare
26 December 2021 4:00 AM
A dangerous tone has crept into the medical discourse. Over the last year, it has become increasingly common to encounter medical professionals talking (with apparent glee) when they hear of someone getting unwell if they feel that person made the ‘wrong’ decision.
This change in attitude can only happen when we start seeing healthcare decisions as moral ones, rather than as factual ones; and as ‘group decisions’ instead of ‘personal decisions’.
Rather than asking ourselves how we weigh up the consequences of various policies and treatments, we are implored to project a consensus morality onto such questions. Those of us who dissent are not just wrong, we are heretics.
Most directly, this manifests itself as condescension towards patients.
Those who question medical decrees are belittled and insulted, both to their face and behind their backs. Although our profession has always been guilty of this conceit to a degree – as is common between experts and non-experts – it is a tendency of which we should be wary. This habit cannot be good for those of us who claim our work is fundamentally moral.
However, what is new is a current of disgust towards people who may disagree with a medical opinion. Of all the sentiments, ‘disgust’ is particularly dangerous and swiftly leads to an escalating chasm between clinician and patient. It is this chasm which stops us functioning as effective clinicians, and prevents us from reflecting on ourselves.
Indeed, this has gone further in many cases...
...When we stop seeing patients as individuals with a specific worth and value, we emerge in a world where a person is dispensable. What matters then is ultimately a projection of our morality, and the ‘ideology’ of a health service. It is especially disturbing that it is our medical profession making these arguments...
