Mary Black, a public-health physician in Serbia, offers her ideas in the current issue of the British Medical Journal (abstract only). [Yes, I know: two posts in two days from BMJ -- but hey, it's interesting stuff.]
Black’s criteria: “[T]hese are jobs that seriously compromise ethical and moral standards, are difficult to justify to your children, and are likely to be a source of regret on your deathbed.”
Here is Black’s list:
1. Head of medical services at Guantanamo Bay.
2. Research scientist at any major tobacco company.
3. Biochemical weapons developer.
4. Surgeon in the commercial kidney transplant trade.
5. Sports doping doctor.
I would also be interested to hear from physicians about their ideas of the hardest jobs in medicine. Personally, I don’t know how anyone can be a pediatric oncologist. But thank goodness for individual preferences, and that lots of other people feel different than I do.
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What sanctimonious PC BS.
“Head of medical services at Guantanamo”? So prisoners should have no medical care? So maybe all “ethical and moral” physicians should refuse to work at prisons where there might (and I emphasize might) be some innocent being held? What about being the personal physician to Mugabe or Kim Jong-Il or Castro? Then your ministrations have the direct effect of keeping millions of innocent people in misery.
“Research scientist at any major tobacco company”? I can just see the mind turning–”well pharmaceutical companies do a little good; what big business can I slam?” The fact is that research scientists and doctors are generally different people with different training. Is there any evidence that tobacco companies are doing clinical research on human beings? If not, there is no need for a MD, and I doubt there are any on staff.
“Biochemical weapons developer”. Oh yeah, here is a thriving medical specialty. I suppose somewhere (probably working for the dictators mentioned previously) there are warped physicians doing dastardly experiments on people with biochemical weapons, but really…
“Surgeon in the commercial kidney transplant trade”. As opposed to surgeons who do kidney transplants for free? What is she slamming, the fact that surgeons get paid well for doing good surgery to help people? Or is she insinuating that people who pay for kidneys are somehow equivalent to muggers in the night, and that surgeons are complicit?
“Sports doping doctor”. I will grant that giving athletes chemicals to boost performance is ethically problematic. But at least the athletes are informed and consenting. Much more ethically challenging, IMO, is the witch hunt against athletes, like Floyd Landis, where every safeguard and procedure for quality testing is violated in the rush to convict.
Hardest jobs? How about an OB-Gyn who is doing abortions? Lots of people think you are a murderer, and no matter how much you rationalize the needs of the mother, you are still killing a living being.
What sanctimonious PC BS.
“Head of medical services at Guantanamo”? So prisoners should have no medical care? So maybe all “ethical and moral” physicians should refuse to work at prisons where there might (and I emphasize might) be some innocent being held? What about being the personal physician to Mugabe or Kim Jong-Il or Castro? Then your ministrations have the direct effect of keeping millions of innocent people in misery.
“Research scientist at any major tobacco company”? I can just see the mind turning–”well pharmaceutical companies do a little good; what big business can I slam?” The fact is that research scientists and doctors are generally different people with different training. Is there any evidence that tobacco companies are doing clinical research on human beings? If not, there is no need for a MD, and I doubt there are any on staff.
“Biochemical weapons developer”. Oh yeah, here is a thriving medical specialty. I suppose somewhere (probably working for the dictators mentioned previously) there are warped physicians doing dastardly experiments on people with biochemical weapons, but really…
“Surgeon in the commercial kidney transplant trade”. As opposed to surgeons who do kidney transplants for free? What is she slamming, the fact that surgeons get paid well for doing good surgery to help people? Or is she insinuating that people who pay for kidneys are somehow equivalent to muggers in the night, and that surgeons are complicit?
“Sports doping doctor”. I will grant that giving athletes chemicals to boost performance is ethically problematic. But at least the athletes are informed and consenting. Much more ethically challenging, IMO, is the witch hunt against athletes, like Floyd Landis, where every safeguard and procedure for quality testing is violated in the rush to convict.
Hardest jobs? How about an OB-Gyn who is doing abortions? Lots of people think you are a murderer, and no matter how much you rationalize the needs of the mother, you are still killing a living being.
I’m no fan of the Bush Administration and I do think they’ve done bad things at Guantanamo Bay, but I really can’t see how providing medical care there is in a class with the other items. This is political opinion overriding medical opinion.
I’m no fan of the Bush Administration and I do think they’ve done bad things at Guantanamo Bay, but I really can’t see how providing medical care there is in a class with the other items. This is political opinion overriding medical opinion.
I think the premise of “1. Head of medical services at Guantanamo Bay” is that you’d likely have extreme pressure from your superiors to not provide good care. I think y’all might be reading it backwards.
A physician would be ethically required to provide standard of care, while military personnel might order you to alter that care. For an ethical physician, that’s a personal disaster.
I think the premise of “1. Head of medical services at Guantanamo Bay” is that you’d likely have extreme pressure from your superiors to not provide good care. I think y’all might be reading it backwards.
A physician would be ethically required to provide standard of care, while military personnel might order you to alter that care. For an ethical physician, that’s a personal disaster.
How about the doctors who perform (or oversee) “lethal injection” in death penalty cases? The states and courts are divided over whether or not lethal injection is cruel and unsual punishment. Also, supervising lethal injection appears to go against the Hippocratic oath.
How about the doctors who perform (or oversee) “lethal injection” in death penalty cases? The states and courts are divided over whether or not lethal injection is cruel and unsual punishment. Also, supervising lethal injection appears to go against the Hippocratic oath.