Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Those Damn Doctors

Those Damn Doctors

Alright I haven’t done one of these in a while; however I will be talking about one thing. This isn’t going to be much of a rant but more of a writing or commentary. The topic I will be addressing in this writing will be doctors.

Lets first define what the basic definition of a doctor is. According to Webster’s Dictionary a Doctor is defined as: –noun
1. a person licensed to practice medicine, as a physician, surgeon, dentist, or veterinarian.


That is the basic definition of what a medical doctor is someone who is licensed to practice medicine. However doctors are sworn in with the Oath of Hippocrates. If you wondering what this Oath is you are in luck because I will post it right here.

The Oath of Hippocrates

I SWEAR by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine, but to none others.
I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional practice or not, in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot!

Alright now that you have read it I want you to go and read it again and really take in what it says. According to this oath you are supposed to actually help people and not look to get a reward. You are supposed to do everything in your power to make people get better. It doesn’t matter who someone is or how much money they have. Someone like Bill Gates should get the same amount of medical attention as some homeless guy.

Now allow for me to get into the first point of my argument here. So many Doctors out there have a god-complex. They feel they should be treated like a god because they helped someone who was sick get better. That is something they swore to do and should never ask to be treated like they are above other men or women. They enjoy the feeling like someone’s life is in their hands and they have the power to save them. Almost as if they are some kind of a savior. The facts are that these people are only human. Of course they may know more about curing people then me or most people, but they are no different then anyone else. They can get sick like everyone else can, and there is nothing that makes them better human beings then anyone else.

Another problem I have with doctors is some of them just do it for the money. If you want to become a doctor then how much you get paid should not matter. If you only want to be a doctor because you will make a lot of money then you should not be a doctor. You should not be doing it for the money, but because you want to help people. So many doctors care so much about making money or having fame. Someone told me that if you take all the head CEOs of major companies and give them some kind of cancer, you will have 5 different versions of a cure in a week.

Now not to be naïve with the fact that money matters. I’m not saying doctors shouldn’t be paid at all, because they should be making some money. I’m also not going to be naïve and say that doing this research is free because it is not. Doctors will need some money in order to be able to do proper research on a disease. What I am referring to are the doctors who care more about finding a cure because it will fatten up their wallets, then the actual concept of savings people’s lives.

I may seem like am contradiction myself with this next statement but trust me I am not. It is a huge misconception that every doctor makes 6-7 figure salaries a year. For some that is true but a lot of them do not make a lot of money. There are people out there who are day-laborers and they make more money then some doctors. Also factor in the fact that they have spent easily over 100k to go to school to become one. However this is the point of becoming a doctor. You want to help people so bad that you don’t care about how much money you are making. When you g to work you feel good about yourself and know your doing the right thing. You may not have a huge house or a luxury car, but you do not care because you main reward in life is the fact that you are helping people and doing everything in your power to make people feel better.

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