On Medical Reform in the U.S.A. and elsewhere

         At birth, at death, and at various times throughout our lives, we rely upon the medical field. The medical calling is ideally a noble one, as it requires great skill and courage to confront often contagious diseases... and also wisdom and communication skills to impart to patients how they can improve their health through diet etc.. The position of doctor is revered because in our minds at least, it embodies these life-preserving virtues. 

             Hippocrates, the father of medicine, understood just how difficult and mysterious illness is and thus he established the oath that a citizen makes upon assuming the title of doctor: "First, do no harm..." His home of ancient Greece was the cradle of many arts central to the modern world: mathematics and science etc..  It was also the birth-place of democracy, that form of society founding fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson thought best for our united states. They proclaimed that we are all 'created equal,' an ideal they laid out in response to the authoritarian regime of King George's British Empire.

             In the United States today we preserve as sacrosanct our Declaration of Independence and our decidedly anti-authoritarian Bill of Rights... in theory. In reality, these free republican ideals battle for the soul of our people with authoritarian cultures like that of law enforcement, the school, and certainly the medical field.  

             All of these, especially the latter, must be reformed to become democratic and consistent with the founding vision of our nation: As opposed to the current authoritarian model in which every one is expected to revere the doctor, who is allowed to operate as a sort of God, as he in turn reveres limited medical technology such as the x-ray and the M.R.I. machine. 

            Instead, we should revere liberty and pursue healing together in egalitarian fashion as we are 'created equal;' Nurses and other medics becoming empowered members and decisionmakers of the team, and may the citizen and human status of patients be reminded to all. Let us be high-touch, not just high-tech: as the body responds to warmth and kindly wisdom, and softly guiding medicines; not the robotic alterations of a computer system alone.