My instinct is to say yes, of course. For all the reasons mentioned above. Though I have no idea how you'd ever enforce such a thing.
But doctors are just people -- humans with the same strengths and weaknesses, genetic tendencies, addictive personalities, optimists or pessimists as the rest of us. They have motivations, joys, disappointments and stresses, and they deal with those things in the same variety of ways that we all do.
It's easy to say that a doctor should know better, especially about something like smoking. But everyone knows better these days, and they still get addicted to it. Therapists sometimes get depressed, or drink too much. Financial advisers sometimes lose their own money. I am sure there are divorced marriage counselors, or nutrition experts who are overweight. We're all just finding our way, faults and all.
Which is not to say I condone a doctor's smoking. My father smoked, and died young, and I hate smoking. But I think knowledge and behavior are separate things, and clearly doctors struggle with that kind of thing the same way anyone else does. It's proof of just how tight a hold tobacco addiction can have on us.
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Really good food for thought here.
My instinct is to say yes, of course. For all the reasons mentioned above. Though I have no idea how you'd ever enforce such a thing.
But doctors are just people -- humans with the same strengths and weaknesses, genetic tendencies, addictive personalities, optimists or pessimists as the rest of us. They have motivations, joys, disappointments and stresses, and they deal with those things in the same variety of ways that we all do.
It's easy to say that a doctor should know better, especially about something like smoking. But everyone knows better these days, and they still get addicted to it. Therapists sometimes get depressed, or drink too much. Financial advisers sometimes lose their own money. I am sure there are divorced marriage counselors, or nutrition experts who are overweight. We're all just finding our way, faults and all.
Which is not to say I condone a doctor's smoking. My father smoked, and died young, and I hate smoking. But I think knowledge and behavior are separate things, and clearly doctors struggle with that kind of thing the same way anyone else does. It's proof of just how tight a hold tobacco addiction can have on us.
March 3, 2009 - 10:12amThis Comment
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