Muslim medical students get picky

No, some ideas are just ignorant. STDs can happen to people who have committed no sexual indiscretion. Physicians should not be judging people's lifestyle, but adhering to the mission of helping the ill.

STDs are not a retribution, and there is no logical way a rational person would think such. Even if they did, a physician's mission is to heal.

 

Yes, but your point has been that you would make a 'concession' to refusing to do an abortion and would not do so for refusing to treat STD's. I don't even know if 'divine retribution' is the theory in these muslim students' objections to learning to treat them. Nevertheless, if you say all opposition to abortion is not 'religious,' then how many doctors or med students would have to oppose treating STD's and insist they are not 'religious' for you to make that concession?

 

I would never make that concession.

 

Then it makes no logical sense that you would make a concession for abortion.

 

Again, that is why it is a concession, and as I explained, there is a big difference between someone thinking a blastocyst is a human life, and not treating an STD, which absolutely no one thinks is such.

Seems you are . . .

 

Yeah, and someone else may think it's a "big difference" the other way. Your claiming that because you see abortion as an important enough dilemma for a medical pro to choose to have nothing to do with it, while denying an equal right to another who sees STD's in the sa,e way clearly shows a moral bias.

 

Yep...a bias in favor of a zygote over an STD. No news there. But you do love beating that dead horse, don't you? :laugh: Like I also stated, not everything is binary.

 

A bias in favor of one moral position over another.

 

Perhaps, but again, it is an issue with many shades of gray. I also have also said that some positions are nothing but ignorance.

Also, as I stated, I personally don't subscribe to the conception = a human life concept, but apparently you also view an STD microbe as equal to a human life...an odd position indeed, if true.

 

Apparently you are some kind of nut for thinking I apparently see that; I don't, nor do I think there is any reason to not treat STD's. But you do think one service provider's personal morals are superior to another's.

 

Sure do, I've already said as much. Some ideas are stupid.

I was wondering how long you could go without name calling and ad hominems. Didn't take long, did it?

 

Too long, likely. And some ideas may be stupid, such as pig being an unclean animal to sheep or catfish. But to an Orthodox Jew or a Muzzlim it's not stupid.

 

Good article here by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, herself a (moderate) Muslim.

 

MP, I think that is a little hard line.

I'm currently a medical student and I can imagine several scenarios where learning or practicing medicine would put me in situations of conflict with my convictions. The field of medical ethics is huge with plenty of difficult situations that don't have answers, regardless of whether one is religious or not.

I would still try to find alternatives for patients who ask me to do something against my convictions. I would give them my medical opinion and explain why my convictions cause a problem. I would think through and present all the options before coming to a place where I would have to refer to another doctor. Some would argue that a referral condones the immoral activity. I think there is a world of difference.

Regarding these Muslim students, at least one problem is their incorrect association between STDs and a promiscuous lifestyle. This is a common mistake Christians make as well. STDs do not have to be acquired via any promiscuity of the patient. It could have been their partner that was promiscuous and it is wrong of the doctors to assume and make a moral judgement on the patient from the presence of an STD.

The other incorrect logic is that treating a person with a disease caused by their lifestyle condones their lifestyle or encourages them to continue in their lifestyle. This is utter rubbish since doctors often have significant influence in changing the lifestyle of their patients when it causes them illness.

Randomized control trials found that patients who were asked by their doctor to stop smoking were 2.5% more likely to quit than those not given advice.