Recently it has been reported that some doctors in South Florida are refusing to treat patients who weigh more than a certain amount or qualify as 'obese' (Use the word fat, it won't kill you I promise!). Some of these physicians have claimed that their equipment won't stand up to the strain of such fat bodies on them and fear we fatty fat fatties will flatten them with our fat asses. Others don't even make the attempt to cover up their dislike of fatties (can you say phobia and disgust my dears?) and simply state that the risk is too great for them to treat patients who are so obviously more likely to have complications and major health issues.
I would like to ask these doctors if they took the Hippocratic Oath when the graduated from medical school. And if they did if they were just shooting hot air out there ass when they took it, or slept through that part? Allow me to present to you my dear readers a modern copy of this oath that was created some time during the 5th century BCE by Hippocrates the supposed father of Medicine. (supposed only because history can't entirely prove it was him)
"I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.
I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.
I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help."
—Written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, and used in many medical schools today. Found at Nova's website.
Now the really important part is toward the beginning of the oath. It states, "I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism." In layman's terms, I will to the best of my ability treat all the sick who come to me while avoiding overtreating them (read overdosing them on medications), or turning them away because I feel that I can't (won't) help them. This oath, though not binding as it was centuries ago, is performed to my knowledge by almost 100% of medical schools today, and has some bearing on how medical ethics work. So in essence these doctors who are refusing patients because of their fatness are breaking an oath held in high esteem by doctors for over 2000 years. An oath that they themselves most likely took upon graduating!
Now important part #2 in this oath, "I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure." Now I ask, how the hell can you prevent disease when you refuse to even look at fat patients. You claim that they are at higher risk for diseases and complications. Could this perhaps be because fat people have been so ridiculed by doctors in the past that they don't come in to see one unless some huge emergency has reared it's head? Could it be that they have complications because it takes longer to diagnose them?! MY GOD WHAT AN ORIGINAL THOUGHT! If you catch the disease/cancer/whatever early, treatment is easier!
So my dears can you say bullshit with me? BULLSHIT! It is bullshit that these doctors are refusing patients who come to them in need. And we all know how many fat people go to the doctor unless it's an emergency; not very many! So these doctors are not only denying fat patients in their area care, they are also showing fat people everywhere that they should just go home and die because it's just too much of a risk for them to treat our fat asses. I continue to call bullshit! It is no more or less risk for a doctor to treat a fat patient than it is for them to treat a thin one! Thin patients have all the disease and complications that fat people do! Thin patients are just as likely to sue their doctor if they believe that doctor fucked up as a fat person! And actually if you think about it a fat person might be less likely to sue because they are beaten down so often that anything that goes wrong they immediately feel it is their fault!
So South Florida doctors...go back to your offices and start doing your job. And yes I realize this has been written about all over the place but I wanted to put my two sense worth in.
