Nice to see O'Bama working on getting rid of midnight Bush rules

[Lissa]

Hi,

You mean like laetrile, faith healing, homeopathy, acupuncture (yes, I know it has been shown to work -- but nowhere as well or as universally as its proponents claim), chiropractory (ditto)?

Sorry, but I think much of the responsibility for information should rest with the patient. That's what multiple opinions are for, that's what specialized clinics are for. A doctor's responsibilities is to provide the services he offers (which can and often do include referrals to other specialists) and not necessarily to suggests treatments he disagrees with for either medical or moral reasons.

--Pete

I have seen a doctor refer someone to chiropracy, I've also see a referal to homeopathy. Not sure was Laetrile is, so no idea there. Have not seen a referal for acupuncture. And no doctor I know of has referred someone to faith healing.

Not all patients know what is available out there, but medical practioneers tend to. They can point a patient at a variety of options and allow the patient to decide which option is best for them. Also, patients don't always have near the resources to look around for information as there are a fair number of people out there that are quite poor and don't have access to things like the internet (even most libraries now charge for internet usage and a lot of the poor would see that as a frivalous use of their meager money). Especially in the case of dealing with the poor, it behooves the medical practioneer to make sure the patient has every resource available to make a proper decision on their health and welfare.