Moral decay
AJAY GEORGE
The article, ‘The Moral Decay’, The Hindu, dated 25th May, 2008, gives a true reflection of the state of moral and ethical affairs in the medical profession.
In my interactions with under graduate medicos in the past 15 years, I have observed that a majority of them, maybe even two-thirds do not take up medicine as an active choice of profession. Either they have been forced to join the course to fulfil parental aspirations or have blindly followed into the profession because some of their family members are doctors. Constant exposure to disease, deformity, disability and death takes a huge psychological and physical toll of the practising doctor. In such a scenario, if the doctor doesn’t have a passion and aptitude for the profession he is most likely to succumb to the temptation of taking unethical shortcuts leading to medically negligent and mercenary practices.
The second major problem I find in the training of doctors is the lack of proper teaching practices in the medical colleges. The Medical Council rules presume that anybody qualified as a doctor automatically qualifies as a teacher too. Knowing medicine and teaching medicine require vastly different talents and skills. In a field where many aspects of the profession like communicating with patients, counselling them etc. are not given in any books, the role of the teacher in moulding the minds of the students is very crucial. A doctor not inclined towards teaching would at best not train his students in the soft skills of medicine and at worst might inculcate wrong value systems. The ills of unsavoury practices in medicine will continue to plague the profession and its image.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Open Page
