WHY I WRITE WHAT I WRITE?
Posted by bmhegde on 1
My daughter always asks me why I write what I write. She is very critical of my quoting US statistics to prove my point in any article. She is an internist in practice in the US. US is one country where there is total freedom of speech and expression. That should never be misconstrued as freedom to write anything one wants to write and criticize anyone or any country. As long as one knows that one is upholding the truth as is known at that point in time, one need not be worried about anything else. I have a very simple principle in life. Any human activity should be for the common good of people and society. There are so many myths in the filed of modern medicine that need to be demolished for the common good. This could never be done with authenticity from anyone outside the field of modern medicine although there have been attempts by great writers to look inside the medical field from outside and point out the mistakes. Unfortunately, most, if not all of them blame the malady on doctors and the system.
That is not the whole truth. While there could be a few greedy doctors in every society at any time, as there are greedy people in every other field of activity, majority of doctors in the US and elsewhere work with a mission of doing good to others. Despite all that US statistics do show that the medical profession has become a bane to society in the present milieu. This is a very serious matter to be brushed under the carpet. We should never have the ostrich like approach to difficult problems thinking that the problem does not exist. We should face the challenge and start a debate to get into the core of the matter to set things right if we could. If we inside do not do that it will soon fall into the hands of outsiders who do not know about trials and tribulations of the majority of doctors have to per force go through to survive in this hostile atmosphere.
I think I am qualified to look into the system from within as I have been in this business for more than half a century, if I were to start from the day I entered the Stanley Medical College in the then Madras city in India where East India Company had started one of the first three medical colleges in India in Madras, Bombay and Calcutta. Interestingly, all those three cities have since changed their names but the content and the curriculum brought by the British has changed very little. Ever since that time I have been a curious student of the working of this enigma, the human body, both in times of illness and wellness. I must admit that I am as curious now as I was fifty years ago.