Yes . . . and no . . .
He can give whatever opinion he likes.
He also needs to remember what his job entails, and that there is a degree of social responsibility with giving advice about his field.

The "selfish" part of the interview gave me the shits, not his opinion on when to have babies. The judgement passed on an older mother is the wrong part, not the facts he opines...

It would be like me saying "all smokers who don't quit before their surgery are idiots." The science backs up smoking as a risky behaviour, but my judgement of stupidness for smokers is wrong.
( Mrs Legless . . . belongs to, well, you know . . . :), Tue 4 Oct 2011, 11:58, 1 reply, 14 years ago)

It's not wrong at all
Say someone has a family that relies on them, but they are diabetic. They are told that smoking and drinking are worse for them than average people because of their condition, but they continue to do it anyway. That person is being selfish, they are putting themselves before other people who rely on them.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 4 Oct 2011, 12:06, Reply)

Yes . . . this is true
but do you think antagonising them and insulting them will lead to a change in behaviour? Nup.
All you'll get is "F*%$ off" - as seems to be the theme of the comments following the original article from a lot of people.


And to be fair, I have referred to someone as an "idiot" for certain lifestyle choices that didn't help his surgery. It was confrontational and probably didn't work for him anyway.
One of the first things medical students are taught (well, way back when I started . . .) is that judgements of patients are off-limits. What I think of someone is irrelevent because my job is to lok after them, even if I don't/agree with them.

Being judgemental of a person clouds clinical judgement . . . you tend to bugger things up when you're not thinking objectively.
( Mrs Legless . . . belongs to, well, you know . . . :), Tue 4 Oct 2011, 12:10, Reply)

So at no point should you ever venture an opinion about public health when asked during an interview?
He's not gone to an individual patient "You're a selfish cunt you are". And I suspect, that as a Doctor he probably wouldn't, for the same reasons you wouldn't, that said I have no evidence that this is true, but you have none the other way either.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 4 Oct 2011, 12:19, Reply)

No - because it isn't my/his job to do that . . .
It's not where his training lies, and I'm certainly not involved in public health, so I'm not going to give social commentary even in a subject I know a lot about.
( Mrs Legless . . . belongs to, well, you know . . . :), Tue 4 Oct 2011, 12:27, Reply)

Is he involved in public health?
I don't know, but given you based your comments on an article about an article, I can't imagine you know either.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 4 Oct 2011, 12:34, Reply)

No he's not . . .
And as stated before, I received the digest of the article as an email.

He's an obstetrician, admitted to the college in 2005.
No involvement in public health, professor at UWE.
( Mrs Legless . . . belongs to, well, you know . . . :), Tue 4 Oct 2011, 12:39, Reply)