I was really taken in this weeks readings by how terrible it is to be at your most vulnerable, looking for help, and then face that kind of degradation and humiliation. Not only to feel that way, but to be questioned, or ignored, or invalidated in regards to your health can only compound that feeling of vulnerability. And to face that in seeking the help of a professional who has taken a vow to do no harm. But obviously it goes beyond all of that to a feeling of degradation. To feeling that your care, or even your life, is of less importance to the person with whom you’ve entrusted it in that moment, it has to be such a scary feeling. Not that medical care is easy, or the body is simple, but caring for the body should be straightforward. Listen to a patient, identify an issue, treat that issue. I guess I’d like to say that doctors should approach every patient with an unbiased scientific mind, but that sounds cold and clinical. People deserve to be seen as themselves. Also saying that implies that the foundations of their knowledge are unbiased, but in truth medical science is incredibly biased. One need only look at the history of eugenics in some of our most esteemed universities to see how the foundations of our medical knowledge were built upon prejudicial ideas. I guess it’s just disheartening that a scientific mind, a doctor, a person who should be equipped to see things as they are, can’t move beyond bias.