| | Doctors should not evangelize?So writes Richard P. Sloan, Professor of Behavioral Medical at Columbia University Medical Center. "Because medical
patients very often are in pain and fearful, they are especially
vulnerable to manipulation by physicians who, even in these days of
medical consumerism, retain positions of authority in the
physician-patient relationship. When doctors capitalize on this
authority to pursue a religious rather than a medical agenda, they
violate ethical standards of patient care," he writes. Sloan also opposes exemption for doctors who believe that certain treatments are unethical, stating that "because doctors have state licenses giving them exclusive rights to
practice medicine, they have an obligation to deliver medical care to
all those who seek it, not just to those who share their religious
convictions."What Sloan is doing is presenting a false dichotomy. He writes, "being a medical professional means assuming certain
responsibilities and foremost among them is acting in the interests of
your patients rather than allowing your personal religious beliefs to
interfere." He is pitting religious beliefs against the interest of the patients, but there is no clear distinction. For a Christian doctor, religious belief plays a major part in determining what is in the best interest of the patient. For example, many doctors, Christian or non-Christian won't perform an abortion, and not only because it would violate their own conscience, but because they believe it is not in the best interest of a patient. A Christian doctor knows that what makes a person well is, in addition to proper medical care, is believing the gospel. Sloan presents these ends as opposed to each other, but proper medical care and soul care do not oppose each other. It is not as if a Christian doctor is neglecting medical care at the expense of sharing the gospel. Sloan wants to present "the best interest of the patient" as something that is purely objective, but it is not so simple. What Sloan wants is to impose his own view of the best interest of the patient over and against the views of a given Christian doctor. To those who oppose Sloan's view, he makes the following suggestion: "find another profession." |
