Modern medicine promises healthy new lives to millions. We all , enjoy the fruits of great scientific discoveries. But do we realise , medical science is nothing but experiments done on live human beings . All treatment modalities are under constant scrutiny. A great drug becomes the most harmful drug over a short time.
A drug or a device which is banned in one country is freely used in other country , marketed by the same parent company . How on earth this can happen ? A device ( Eg : A stent ) which is found inferior can still can be used legally elsewhere , hiding the information .
- Do we divulge all vital information to our patients ?
- Do we reveal all our conflicts of interest to our faithful patients ?
Informed consent is the “greatest invention” in medicine . That is democracy in medicine . Doctor patient conversation is supposed to be most noble of all communication !
But . . . this is under genuine threat . In this ” New medical AVATAR ” truths remain only as thoughts , they rarely come out as words or action !
One such situation a physician often faces in his office , as he is compelled to act against his conscience
If only we have an ability to read his silence it will go something like this . . .
For the sake of Science & Commerce , I have to implant this device in your heart , and my gut feeling says , you will do much better without this device as well ! But , I am sorry . . . I can’t avoid it .
Doctors are not be blamed . . . rather , we can’t blame any body
Patients believe in doctors , and doctors believe in science And the irony is , doctors have no other option as they are coerced to believe , in whatever is published as science even if it is half baked , unproved, unapproved or even dangerous science .
Let us prey for the genuine science to prevail at least in human health and the mankind reap the maximum benefits !
Let us recall Mahatma Gandhi’s “Seven Social sins” That included one advice for the scientific world nearly a century ago when it was at it’s infancy !
Seven Social Sins By Mahatma Gandhi
- Politics without Principle
- Wealth Without Work
- Pleasure Without Conscience
- Knowledge without Character
- Commerce without Morality
- Science without Humanity
- Worship without Sacrifice
– Young India, 22-10-1925
Dr.S.Venkatesan MD 
Leave a comment