What is "modern medicine"? A god based on the status of the current stage of human knowledge? Is no rethinking possible? I think Gilbert did an interesting expose -- from a field of his specialisation -- to explain how we can be caught in a time-warp and still feel very sanctimonous about it....
It might not be unrealistic to say that "modern medicine" is, at best, a changing field of knowledge. One that is limited by current-day knowledge, biases, and even the interests of big pharma and other lobbies. It is, for instance, very interesting to see the manner in which Western allopathy related to traditional Indian medicine, changing its stance very often (mostly linked with the colonial power-play) in the times of old. As Timothy Walker has shown, there were times when the colonial governments (the Portuguese, in this case) were taking back tonnes of plant-based medicines from their newly-discovered lands, to Europe. So when does a traditional medicine become "modern" and "acceptable"? Only when some scientist in a white coat validates its efficacy? If we know something works (look at all the patents wrongly granted on Indian traditionally-used items and the struggle to reclaim these): India At The Forefront Of Knowledge Commons Debate http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=389&res=1280_ff&print=0 Goanet is indeed a great place. Neurospecialists tell oncologists how they should do their work. Paediatricians lecture to historians. And we have medical ethics being applied to decide what's wrong and right in the field of journalism. We just perhaps need to start being critical of our own fields, and their flaws. For instance, I would be the first to say journalism (forget about concepts like "precision journalism") is still very much of a hit-and-miss activity, one that is filled with flaws and human biases, and is definitely not as neutral and objective as made out to be by classic text-book scenarios. FN On 15/09/06, Santosh Helekar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- Gilbert Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > I notice quite a few doctors were in the forefront > > in their attacks on religion. Yet when it comes to > > abuses in medicine, they are silent. Or like you, > > they may voice concern about "confusing Goan > > readers" with alerting them about poor medical > > practices. > > > > In my post on "Myths and Misinformation regarding > Cancer", rather than remaining silent, I provided an > example of an abuse in medicine. I showed how modern > medical facts were distorted and misrepresented in a > public forum under a thread entitled "Science as > Religion / response to Fred". I hope doctors, as well > as non-doctors, continue to expose such abuses in > medicine. > > Cheers, > > Santosh -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha http://fn.goa-india.org 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/fn-goa/ _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
