AAP News Vol. 10 No. 1 January 1994, p. 16
© 1994 American Academy of Pediatrics
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The death of `Dr. God' `Patient is always right' could ruin health care

ELLEN GOODMAN 1

1 Columnist The Boston Globe

In the beginning, there was Dr. God. We brought our bodies to his medical altar with a certain amount of fear, a lot of awe and some hope of salvation. Dr. God told us what to do and we did it, praying all the while that he — almost always he — would save us from experiencing the afterlife before our time.

We lost this medical Eden for the same reason we lost the biblical one: knowledge. We came to know what doctors didn't know. We became more informed and more skeptical. We even learned to get a second opinion. This is not something that you do with God.