Mr. Holden,

And so, thanks to Doctor we have grown in number and insanity.

Probably it was not Doctor’s compassion, but greed.

I am too long on the tooth, I have touched the medical pasture tangentially, peered into its history and like, Samuel Luke Fildes’ picture; it is not a pretty sight.

Now I am entering my eighty seventh year and thanks to Doctor, who is making his living on me, my life is also not pretty.

We, mended puppets! We have grown to a number that can no longer be sustained by the ball we live on, and greed and war and, above all, the mentioned insanity, in the form of aggression has assumed dimensions that will make short work of all humans.

Probably there is a Medicine, and that is: Put out of business all schools, and leave space for man to think and not just write. No Doctor, no bombs then!

Real doctors are those who observe the Hippocratic oath, i.e. those who practise medicine ethically.

Real doctors are those who are not going to be involved in helping a patient end their life.

Real doctors are those who are not going to be involved in helping a patient end the life of their unborn babies.

Raycom

Real doctors take body parts from condemned to execution before ‘formal execution’and sell those organs to the executioners.

Money is palpable. Ethics does not buy mansions or fast cars.

I don’t think that you have met and shook hands with ethics anyhow.

Have you?

I have often thought along these lines too, Mr Holden.

The path that both the doctor/doctor and the doctor/moneymaker take to qualify is presumably pretty much the same. They go to the same lectures, learn the same techniques, meet the same role models.

Some go on to employ the skills they have learned in "meeting market demand", some go on to "practice medicine". No prizes for working out which of the two plays more golf.

Customers of the cosmetic surgeon consider the service a discretionary expense. The doctor/moneymaker sees the patient as a revenue source.

Patients of the doctor/doctor see the service as a necessity, cost being a secondary consideration. The doctor/doctor sees the patient as someone needing help.

As we have heard many times on this Forum, we are in a "user pays" world. So you can't blame the individual for choosing revenue over service.

In a way, it is a form of population control. Eventually, only the rich will survive.

Just like the Samuel Luke Fildes picture says.

Skeptic, you are being very skeptical. While some doctors sadly are driven primarily by the profit motive and give low priority to caring,there are many ethical doctors around.

As far as I can tell, it is illegal in this country to practice cosmetic surgery without going through the training and formalities of the doctor's guild.

The doctor's guild is also entrusted with many other privileges, such as:

* A special levy towards paying for their services is imposed on everyone whether or not they wish to use the guild's services.
* A nearly-compulsory extra "private insurance" for receiving their services (replaceable by an extra levy).
* The state providing, furnishing, equipping and staffing much the buildings that are necessary for practicing their trade.
* The sole right to prescribe medications that are otherwise made illegal.
* The sole right to operate on people (with minor exceptions for dentists).
* The sole right to authorise laboratory tests.
* The sole right to determine whether people are able to work (both in general and in particular occupations).
* The sole right to grant a sick-leave.
* The sole right to determine whether people are able to drive.
* The sole right to incarcerate people on grounds of insanity.
* The sole right to determine whether criminals are sane or not.
* The sole right to determine whether a person is alive or dead.
* The right to kill discretely without a criminal investigation.
* The sole right to receive and handle injured people that are taken by ambulance and are not conscious enough to object (and often even if they do object).
* The sole right to train candidates who wish to practice the trade of their guild.
* The exclusion of anyone who is not member in their organization (even if trained) from practicing their trade.
* Limiting the immigration of potential competitors from other countries.

This list is far from exhaustive.

Just imagine if the furniture-makers guild, or glass-makers, or fortune-tellers for example, had similar privileges!
This was in fact the case in the middle-ages, the doctor's guild is a reminiscent of those times.