Grow Up and Get Over It!

On this page a while back was a column titled The Bill of Rights (You Don’t Have). One of those is this:

“ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone, no just you! Odds are that sometime someone will say or do something you don’t like. Learn to live with it.”

A woman in New Hampshire apparently never saw this column, or read about the rights you don’t have. Having been told by her doctor, Dr. Terry Bennett, who practices in Rochester, that she is morbidly obese, she has gotten her very sizable bloomers in a huge wad, and has, of all things, filed a complaint with the state Attorney General.

Dr. Bennett said he has "an obesity lecture for women" that tells it like it is, and is designed to get the attention of obese female patients. Obesity is one of the biggest killers in America, leading to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and some types of cancer. According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, “He said he tells obese women they most likely will outlive an obese spouse and will have a difficult time establishing a new relationship because studies show most males are completely negative to obese women. Bennett said he tells them their obesity will lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, gastroesophageal reflux and stroke.

Now, I know a lot of doctors. I used to recruit them when I served on the board of a local hospital. I used to work with them on hospital committees, and as Chair of the Quality Assessment and Improvement Committee, I sometimes had to discipline them.

Here are some facts about doctors: Some of them are very nice people. Some of them apparently never took, or got a failing grade in, Bedside Manner 101. Some of them are arrogant, and dismissive of people, including patients, who are not doctors. Some of them are rude.

However, those descriptions can be applied to any and every profession or line of work. Being arrogant and rude is not the private domain of doctors, although it may be the case that more of them possess those negative descriptors than in any other profession or line of work. Maybe we want our doctors to treat us with courtesy and respect, but isn’t it more important to get their best professional advice, regardless of how it is packaged?

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office wants Dr. Bennett to take a sensitivity course, which is the universal “treatment” for most cases of supposed insensitivity. He has refused.

Here’s some advice for the Attorney General: Leave Dr. Bennett alone and spend the taxpayer’s money on really serious problems.

Here’s some advice for the obese woman: Get over it. The man is trying to save your life, and help you become a more desirable companion for other people. Get yourself some help and lose weight.

One more thing we don’t need in this country is a politically correct requirement that impairs doctors in their duty to give their patients the best medical advice possible, even if they do it in a less-than-desirable manner.


Technorati Tags: Doctors, Pro Life, Obesity, Medicine