I have been trying to avoid this thread, but decided to go ahead and jump in.
I am not a doctor. I have quite a few in the fam and always thought I would go down that route, but in the end went a different direction for VARIOUS reasons.
I also do not wish to offend any of the docs here on the board. I admire you for what you do and what you all endured to be able to do what you do. I also do not wish to offend others that might think differently than I am about to express... so I simply offer MY humble opinion, again my OPINION, about some of what has been said here on this thread. Mostly offered as more food for thought...
I completely support a person's right to choose what medical treatment they wish to choose for their circumstance. I also think parents should be able to choose freely for their children. The key in any of this is education. I do not mean education as in going to school. There are plenty of people out there that are intelligent enough to make informed medical decisions once given the information about various options. Doctors, although hopefully well trained, do not have the market cornered on intelligence. And there are plenty of options out there for lots of diseases and medical conditions, some of which may seem weird to some, but normal to others. Most docs I know hardly have the time to stay as well informed on new possibilities that might exist, or even old ones. It is just a matter of time required vs. time needed. It is all in perspective and what information a person has studied. There are plenty of great docs out there, but there are also plenty of bad ones as well. There are good and bad hospitals. There are also good and bad patients. Think about the ends we go through sometimes when it comes to work on our cars. Shouldn't we be that concerned with getting as much detailed info about medical treatment for various issues that might affect our health. How about we take care of our health to start with?
Finally, sometimes docs, nurses, hospitals, drug companies, patients make mistakes. There are a lot of people each year that die from medical treatment mistakes - SOME of those mistakes are malpractice, but I would say that most are simply mistakes. The bad part is even a simple mistake can kill someone, or do more harm that the disease or illness. The mistake made by patients is to blindly accept everything their doctor tells them as the end all. They need to be much more questioning. I find it very interesting that the AMA started a a widespread ad campaign last year talking about this and the need for patients to be more active in asking docs questions. Part of that is probably just a CYA move in my opinion, but there is still good advice in the message. I am starting to go on and on so I will stop. I could say much more, but most will probably be glad I am done!
I agree with Nathan's Dad that perhaps if a patient refuses treatment that can be proven will defintely end their life (how to do this against one's faith though is a tricky issue), that patient might as well not be offered the other treatment, unless it is paid by private funds.
The faith/positive thought question is one that is very intriguing to me. I have seen some remarkable things in my circle. I have also seen/read/etc other intersting information about this. The placebo effect is very real. It begs the question of how much control our thoughts and faith do have on our well being. I think it has a LOT to do with it. In fact, not too long ago, there was a great documentary where they actually experimented with placebo surgery (knee surgery). I think it was half of the patients used in the study were only cut open, and then stitched up. It was very controlled, in that the docs and nurses pretended to do everyting they would have done as if actually operating. The results... more of the non-surgery patients had better recovery results. I think all would have to see it as an interesting result. I do not think the movie is readily available anymore (hmmmm
), but the study was performed in England I think...
I left out the part about drug companies and lawyers.
Another time perhaps!
I sincerely hope that this is taken only as another opinion. It is my opinion, and so in the end, it really only matters to me, but I offer it again, as some more food for thought. I actually think this could be a great thread, but agree that we should keep things civil. It does not mean that we accept everyone's opinions without question, only that we respect them enough to alow them their own opinion, and afford them the ability to express it here among friends...
Shane
