> -----Original Message----- > From: brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com [mailto:brin-l-boun...@mccmedia.com] On > Behalf Of Andrew Crystall > Sent: Monday, August 31, 2009 4:25 PM > To: Killer Bs DDavid Brin et al Discussion > Subject: Re: Ben Bernanke, fearless leader > > On 30 Aug 2009 at 12:22, John Williams wrote: > > > One of a doctor's fundamental guidelines is "do no harm". A > > responsible doctor would never operate on a patient to remove the > > appendix simply because the patient complains of a stomach ache. More > > information about the state of the patient is needed before an > > operation is justified. > > An excellent example. > > Doctors are expected to remove a certain percentage of healthy > appendixes. I can't remember the exact percentage, but it's > significant. Why? Because the effects of an acute burst appendix are > so nasty. If a doctor isn't removing enough healthy ones, then he is > actually not serving his patents properly. > > You may wish to reflect on this as regards your stance.
There is one other point that clearly falsifies the "first do no harm" taken as an absolute rule for medicine. Take, for example, the fact that there are always unknown factors and low probability events in medicine. For example, even with the most common surgeries, there is a chance the patient will die in surgery. Thus, if we first do no harm, we never do surgery. Clearly, I'm not arguing with you here, its just that your point made me reflect a bit. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
